Saved by Grace
by DragonBlade152
Summary: A morph wakes up in Team Rocket's grasp with no memory and no name. Using only her strength and determination, she must escape and find a new life, for both herself and the other morphs.
1. The Beginning

Alright, fist (or at least one of the first) stories of 2013! Don't worry, it gets happier later on.

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Pain. No, it was beyond pain. Beyond agony. There were no words to describe it. Each second was an eternity, and it seemed to go on for minutes, hours, days. Darkness came and went, temporarily blocking out the pain, only to leave a while later and allow the terrible agony, like a million hot knives, to once again take hold. Slowly, almost unnoticeable at first, the pain began to recede. Then once again the blackness came back, and this time did not release its comforting embrace of obliviousness.

Dirt. It smelled like moist dirt, along with the sea, wood, and living things. There was a momentary scuffing noise, as if someone was moving slightly, then stilled. Fainter noises could also be heard: shouts, cracks, moans, and other less definite sounds. Whatever she lay on was hard. She was a she, wasn't she? Eyelids flickered open. She was lying on hard packed dirt. Slowly, carefully, she raised her head slightly. A wall met her sight. It was rudely constructed of ill-fitting wooden boards with gaps wide enough to let plenty of sunlight through. Above that was thatch supported by wooden beams. Like the wall, there were gaps that let sunlight in. The sounds were coming from behind her.

With the smallest movement possible, she looked down at herself. She was dressed in a simple long-sleeved white shirt and brown pants. There was nothing on her feet. Her hands, when she looked at them, seemed strong, with long fingers. She turned them over. On the back of each hand was a circular piece of what looked like metal, rising into an extremely flattened cone. Gently, she touched one. She couldn't feel her fingers touching the metal. The skin seemed to join with it much like a fingernail. For some reason, it seemed strange. Hands were not supposed to be like that. She pulled some hair in front of her face. It was straight, black, and shoulder length. Feeling the back of her head, she found four small lumps, two on either side. They didn't hurt when she touched them, so she assumed they were supposed to be there, like the things on the back of her hands. Nothing else seemed to be out of the ordinary.

Cautiously, she turned her head to see what was behind her. A figure was framed by a rectangle of sunlight. Beyond the figure were several more huts like her own and, in the distance, the sea, barricaded by a tall chain link fence.

The figure turned around. He was dressed in dark clothes with a red R on the chest. She immediately had a bad feeling about him, and it wasn't because of the weapon he carried.

"Get up." he commanded, waving his weapon toward the outside. Slowly, she rose to a crouch, not sure if she would fall flat on her face when she stood. It was not fast enough for the guard. He marched in, grabbed her arm, and yanked her to her feet. "Move it." he said with a shove towards the door. She stumbled outside. Another guard was waiting. She was marched to a small enclosure, almost like a fighting ring. Several other men were standing there. She noticed that they were all taller than she was. One of them stepped forward.

"These are your superiors. You will do what they say. Unfortunately, we can't kill you." he gave a nasty smile, "Yet. But we can make death sound like a pretty good option if you don't." He unwound a long whip and cracked it a few times. "First, you are going to learn how to speak. Start talking."

She stared at him. Talk? She didn't know if she could talk. Faster than lightning, the whip ripped across her back, causing her to stumble. Two guards grabbed her arms and held her while the whip hit her again and again. She didn't know what she finally screamed, but the whip stopped. She could feel warm blood begin to trickle down her back. Eyes blurry with pain, she looked up. The man was curling his whip and tucking it into his belt.

"That's a start." he said, walking over to a narrow wooden beam set on two blocks. "Walk across this."

The guards holding her shoved her towards the beam. For a second she didn't know if her legs would hold her. When her knees quit shaking she mounted the beam and began walking across it. She was about a quarter of the way across when something sliced across her shoulders, causing her to loose her balance and fall. When she looked up, the man was swinging his whip in a carefree manner.

"Not fast enough. You should have been there and back by that time. Get up and do it again, faster this time."

Back throbbing, she got up and started across the beam again. The whip lashed across her back again, but this time she managed to retain her balance. She went faster. Several more times the whip hit her, but she managed to stay on the beam and was soon running across it was quickly as she could. Finally, the man said, "Enough." She half jumped, half fell off the beam, feeling blood start to trickle down her legs. She was required to do several more things, such as push-ups, lifting a heavy weight and holding it above her head, and running with weights tied to her feet. By the time the sun started to set she was exhausted. Her hands and feet were bruised, and she was sure there was no skin left on her back. The last thing she had to do was stand perfectly still while the man walked around her and made a long-winded speech on how he was going to break her. At the end of the speech he put his face close to hers, no doubt to make some last parting remark.

She snapped. Suddenly lunging, she managed to get her hands around his neck as he fell backwards. His face was turning purple by the time the other guards were finally able to haul her off of him. The man got up, seething with anger as he rubbed his throat. With one deft movement he uncoiled his whip and began beating her viciously. She felt darkness begin to close in on her when she heard yelling. The beating suddenly stopped. There was more yelling, and she was hauled out of the ring to a large open area. A huge metal container filled with a colorless mush stood in the middle with a large crowd surrounding it. Roughly, she was shoved towards the crowd. Several people caught her as she stumbled forward. Looking up, she could see that almost everyone in the crowd was a strange mixture of human and Pokémon. One, a part-Wartortle, gently helped her to the mush. He smiled as he looked into her eyes.

"Eat up. You new ones are always hungry. You'll get used to it after a while."

She noticed that he had beautiful sea-green eyes that also held a lot of pain and suffering. Hesitantly, she broke eye contact and dipped her hand into the warm mush, hearing several whispers about the condition of her back. The mush was as tasteless as it was colorless, but after her harsh day that didn't matter. After several more handfuls she backed off a bit, letting others get to the food. She noticed another container of water, with others also gathered around it. She had no sooner decided to try to get to it when the part-Wartortle took her arm and helped her through the mass.

"We are poké-morphs, or morphs for short." he whispered, "I'm not sure what kind of morph you are, but if you can still stand after what they did to your back, you must be a tough one."

She nodded thanks as they reached the water. After a couple of sips she began to get dizzy, probably from her many beatings. The Wartortle-morph watched her, concerned. A couple of guards came through the masses, lashing out with their weapons when morphs did not move out of the way fast enough.

"Dinner's over, get to your huts!" they called. When they reached her, they grabbed her and hauled her to what must have been the same hut she had woken up in. One of the guards pointed above the door. An M was carved there, followed by the numbers 151. She had no idea what that was supposed to mean.

"This is your hut. If you aren't in it by curfew, there will be serious consequences."

Wearily, she collapsed onto the dirt floor, not caring how badly her raw back was jarred. She would have fallen asleep that instant, except for one thought. Who was she? She had to be a morph. The Wartortle-morph had said as much. But who was she? She didn't even have a name. Had she had a life before this nightmare? After several minutes of pondering, her weariness overcame her, and she sank into a dreamless sleep.

"Come on, you lazy trash, get up!"

There were several cracks. She opened her eyes. It wasn't even light out. The man with the whip was walking down the row of huts, cracking his whip and yelling for everyone to get up. Her shirt stuck to her back, forming a sort of bandage. She hissed in pain as it started to tear away from her wounds. Wishing she was anywhere but there, she stumbled outside. Others were also emerging from the huts, heading towards the place where the food had been yesterday. She followed them. There was a fresh batch of mush, and everyone was crowding around, trying to get some before the day started. A slight hush fell as she approached, and a slight gap appeared. She heard several whispers that she shouldn't have been alive as she passed. As she ate, she saw the Wartortle-morph. He nodded to her, and she nodded back.

Soon after men came and began gathering different morphs. She was taken to the same place as yesterday. Her day went much the same, except that it seemed like she wasn't beaten quite as much. For the next month it was about the same. She learned which guards preferred whips, rods, belts, and other sundry weapons, how to avoid getting beaten, and how to talk in complete sentences. She was also aware that she was getting stronger and faster, though inadequate food and rest limited by how much. Then an unexpected change came to her schedule. Around noon, she was taken to a large ring obviously meant for fighting. On the opposite side of the ring another morph was brought in. She recognized him as the Wartortle-morph who had helped her those first few days.

"This will be a fight to the death." a guard said, "No rules. Get to it."

She froze. A fight to the death? She knew she wouldn't be able to kill the morph, even if it meant dying herself. He attacked, and she was knocked down, but quickly got up. Some instinct guided her through moves that she didn't know she knew. After a few minutes she had the Wartortle-morph pinned. It was clear that she had won. Looking into his eyes, she saw sadness, and a fear that she would end it. She couldn't do it. Taking a deep breath, she backed off. The morph just lay there staring after her, surprised.

"Finish him!" someone yelled. She shook her head. It wasn't worth it. She was suddenly seized and held while a whip lashed across her back again and again. Finally they let her go. "Finish him." a guard commanded. Once again she shook her head. This time she was beaten until she was nearly unconscious. Through the haze of pain she heard someone say, "Take her back to her hut. We won't get anything else out of her today."

Roughly, she was dragged back to her hut and tossed in unceremoniously. She didn't know how long she lay there, fading in and out of consciousness as blood dripped from her back. Then there were footsteps. She was immediately awake and alert. There was a thud and a soft moan. Perhaps she had a roommate. Her back hurt to much for her to move and see who it was. After a while she felt a gentle touch on her back. A warmth seemed to come from it, taking the pain away.

"Don't." she said quietly. The warm touch paused, but did not withdraw. "They'll do the same thing to me tomorrow. Besides, you'll need every bit of strength for yourself."

There was a long pause, then the warmth continued, stopping the bleeding and easing the pain. After a short while it stopped. She turned her head to see who it was. A Gardevoir-morph was kneeling next to her. She sat up.

"The first thing they will probably do is beat you until you say something."

The Gardevoir-morph's eyes went wide.

"I can help you, if you want."

The morph nodded. For an hour she taught the morph how to speak. By the end the morph could say several sentences. With a quiet, "We'd better get some sleep," she laid down and drifted off, knowing that her new roommate was doing the same.

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As a side note, this story will be updated at least semi-regularly, since it's already finished. Reviews are always welcome!


	2. Names and a New Face

OK, slight edit. This was the first story of 2013 in my timezone. I forgot the servers are on the west coast of the US, which is where I'm not. Anyway, here's the next chapter.

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The next morning it took her a while to remember what had happened. Looking over, she saw the Gardevoir-morph sitting up, looking confused.  
"Come on, I'll show you where to go."  
She led the morph outside to were the food was. A silence fell as she approached and the morphs parted, bowing their heads respectfully as she passed. Confused, she went to the food, gesturing for the Gardevoir-morph to eat as well. After they had finished, she heard the Gardevoir-morph ask, in the broken English she had learned last night, "What she do?"  
"She saved my life." a familiar voice said. She turned to see the Wartortle-morph come up. He bowed deeply to her.  
"I hope we are even now." she said quietly.  
The Wartortle-morph straightened, surprised, before taking her hand. "Whatever happens, I will always be your friend."  
"Likewise."  
The next few weeks passed with little difference than before, other than she spent an hour every night helping the Gardevoir-morph learn to talk. Soon her assistance was no longer needed, and she was able to get an extra hour of sleep. One night, as they were getting ready to sleep, the Gardevoir-morph suddenly said, "My name is Marie."  
"What?" she asked, a little startled.  
"My name is Marie. What is your name?"  
"I...I don't have a name." she said hesitantly.  
"Well, where did you come from before?"  
"I don't know. I don't remember anything before this."  
There was a long pause, then Marie said, "I'll call you Grace."  
"Grace?"  
"Yes. It is...it was my trainer's name." There was a hint of ill-concealed sadness in her voice.  
"I am honored to be named after your trainer." the newly named Grace said.  
Grace soon found out that they had the to-the-death battles once a month. No matter how much they beat her, she refused to kill anyone. This gained her great respect among the morphs. Three months after Marie had come, they gained another roommate. They had just lain down, both wishing for something to dull the pain from the beatings, when someone was tossed in, landing on Marie. After limbs had been sorted out, Grace was able to get a good look at the newcomer. He was a Gallade-morph, with the same pale skin, green hair, and red eyes as Marie. The only differences were that he had a bluish streak running through his hair which stuck up like a small crest and large bumps protruding from his elbows. Grace knew that Marie felt an instant kinship with the newcomer, even though he had landed on top of her battered frame.  
"I'm Marie, and this is Grace. What's your name?"  
The Gallade-morph made the most interesting faces as he tried to form the word.  
"Tori."  
"Well, Tori, since you've already started, we may as well teach you to talk some more. They beat you if you don't talk."  
Marie and Grace took turns staying up and teaching Tori how to talk. He was a quick learner and soon was speaking as if he had been doing it his entire life. Using his new-found power of speech, he also began demonstrating a keen sense of humor.  
"If dawn breaks and dusk falls every day, why don't you hear them?" he asked one morning as they went to get their morning mush, causing Marie to giggle slightly.  
"Because then you wouldn't be asking that question." Grace said dryly.  
"But if you could hear them, then I'd be asking why you could."  
"And I'd give you the same answer."  
By then they were at the food area, and Tori began joking with the others, causing smiles on faces that hadn't had so much of a ghost of a grin on them in a long time.  
Tori also proved to be extremely loyal, both to Marie and Grace and to the morph population in general, in word and in deed. One time Marie's training had been tougher than usual, and she was late getting to dinner. Grace had to help her to the mush. Just as they had gotten there the guards came and started herding everyone towards their huts. Tori wordlessly stood in front of them, preventing the guards from getting near. He refused to move until Marie had gotten some food, enduring a harsh beating in the process. When Grace had helped both of them to their hut, he said, "You know, I don't think they like me."  
Often Marie and Tori would talk before going to sleep, with a few comments thrown in by Grace. It was interesting, Grace thought. Marie was compassionate, with a friendly nature that made her instantly likeable. Tori tended to be more blunt, but still had a good sense of humor that even harsh beatings couldn't get rid of and a loyalty streak a mile wide. And she...she was quiet, that was for sure. Grace didn't talk much, preferring to let her actions speak for her. She didn't have a past to compare anything to, and was always filled with sadness and longing when Marie and Tori talked about their previous lives as Pokémon. One day, after a particularly harsh whipping for not killing, Tori said, "They beat you worse than they beat anyone else."  
"That's because I refuse to kill my opponent in a fight to the death." Grace said, wincing as Marie tried to staunch the blood.  
"I'm not talking just about today. You're always hurt much worse than anyone else. From what I've heard you should have died after your first day. Why do they beat you so much? And how can you take it?"  
"Maybe they beat me so much because they know I can take it. Or they don't like me. I did manage to almost kill one of them my first day."  
"But how can you take it? Anyone else would have been dead by now."  
Grace hissed as Marie pressed on a particularly deep wound in order to stop the bleeding. "Maybe I just don't know when to give up."  
"Or they made you stronger." Marie said, "Since you're stronger than everyone else, you can take more."  
"Perhaps. But I'd still prefer not being beaten at all. Has my back stopped bleeding yet?"  
"Just about. I'm surprised you have any skin left, or blood. Every day you're bleeding by dinner, and everyone's worried that you won't last much longer."  
Grace groaned as she rolled onto her back. Tori was right. No one else seemed to be as injured at the end of the day as she was. The truth was that she really wasn't sure how much longer she would last. These constant beatings were hurting her faster than she could recover.

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And she has a name now! Sorry for the bad chapter ending. I don't usually think in chapters when I write, so breaking it up into chapters gets really hard. Cheers!


	3. Tragety and Escape

Several months later Grace was once again taken to the fighting ring for a battle to the death. They had begun having her fight two opponents at a time instead of one lately. Her eyes widened when she saw who she was up against. Marie and Tori, who had recently been training as a team, faced her, looking as surprised as she was. There was no way that she could do this.  
"Start!"  
No one moved. Tori shook his head. "I won't."  
"You will, or there is no power on earth that can save you."  
Tori leaped at the guard. A mob descended on him, beating him viciously. Two guards had to restrain Marie, while another four held Grace. When the mob was finally finished, Tori lay on the ground unmoving, covered in blood. Marie broke free and ran to him, cradling him in her arms. Grace was let go and also ran over. Somehow, she could feel Tori's life ebb away. Then it was gone. Marie shook with suppressed sobs as she held his lifeless body. Grace fell to her knees. Taking his limp hand, she whispered, "I'm sorry. Wherever you are, I hope it's a better place than this."  
Marie and Grace barely felt the beatings they were given that day. Word quickly spread that Tori had been killed. Every morph was in mourning. Marie had to be cajoled to eat. Grace had to be forced. That night Marie cried while Grace sat against the wall, staring at nothing. "It's all my fault." she whispered.  
"What?" Marie asked, wiping her nose.  
"It's all my fault. If only I had done something..."  
"What could you have done?"  
"I don't know, but if I had just done something, Tori would still be alive."  
"Don't be ridiculous. There was nothing you could have done."  
Grace seemed not to hear. "It's all my fault..."  
Marie reached over and slapped her. "Quit talking like that. There's nothing you could have done without also getting killed, and where would I be then? Lie on you stomach."  
Grace complied. "Marie, I don't know what I'd do without you."  
"You'd have to fix yourself up." Marie said, "I think you're not bleeding as much anymore. Maybe you've gotten enough scars."  
From then on Marie and Grace were different. Marie seemed more compassionate than ever, if that were possible, and would occasionally cry herself to sleep. Grace became quieter than ever, and seemed grimmer. The morphs respected their right to privacy and gave them peace rather than drowning them in comfort. Life went on for over a year, filled with beatings, little food, and whatever comfort they could glean from each other.  
"I think they're going to send me on a mission." Marie said one night. Grace took a moment to process this information. Occasionally a morph would be taken from the compound and sent to assist with whatever mission that particular group of Team Rocket grunts were assigned. Most of the time, the morph came back and resumed training. There were the very rare occurrences where the morph didn't come back. The others whispered that they had escaped, and fervently hoped that one day they would be given that same opportunity. Grace looked Marie in the eye.  
"Promise me one thing." she said, "If it's at all possible, escape. Don't come back here because of me. I'd rather see you in heaven than here."  
"I promise." Marie said solemnly.

A week later Marie didn't come back for the night. Grace assumed she was sent on a mission and fervently prayed that she would be able to escape, though the numbers that actually did were woefully low. After several weeks Grace assumed that she was either gone or dead and began planning her own escape. Though she had been there longer than Marie, no one had even hinted if she was going to be sent on a mission yet. Grace guessed that she wouldn't be anytime soon, and started thinking about how she would escape from the compound. No one had ever done it before, but that wasn't going to stop her. For months she watched, staying up late into the night to see where the guards moved. Finally, she had a general plan. One morning at breakfast she came up beside the Wartortle-morph, whose name she had learned was Seth, seemingly by chance. As they ate, she quietly asked, "Do you know when the tides go in and out?"  
"I do." Seth said, not looking at her in case he rose suspicion in the guards that were watching them.  
"When will it start to go out between two and three in the morning?"  
Seth was silent as a guard walked by. "In five days it will start to go out a little before two."  
"Thank you."  
Five days later Grace crouched in the shadows by the door, waiting for the night guard to walk by. When he was past, she used the gaps between the boards to climb up the wall to the beams that supported the thatched roof. Carefully, she removed a square of thatch that she had prepared a few days before. Slowly, she eased herself out onto the roof, making sure she knew exactly where the beam was. By some twist of luck it was raining, making it easier for her to go unnoticed. Grace knew that the guards on the watchtowers changed at three, and the current ones would be drowsy and less likely to notice anything. Moving with uncanny speed and skill, she jumped from hut to hut, occasionally freezing when a guard walked by. Thanks to the rain and uncertain shadows, she went unnoticed until she came to the base of a watchtower. It was the one closest to her hut, and the guards were more often looking at a different section than hers. All the training she had gone through helped her now as she swiftly and silently scaled the walls, hoping that no one would have the brains to look up or down. The fence rose almost, but not quite, to where the sentries stood. This would be the most dangerous place, she knew. Trying to make no sound, she was halfway over the fence when she heard a guard say, "Did you hear something?"  
Grace froze. If she waited long enough they should dismiss the noise. Her foot slipped and hit the side of the tower, making a dull thud.  
"I heard something. Let's check it out."  
Grace could see the sentries as they leaned out, searching for the cause of the sound. By some miracle they did not see her as she clung to the side of the tower.  
"Must have been the rain."  
The guards went back inside. Grace waited a while longer before continuing. She made it across the fence and down without any more problems. The guards would most likely focus all their attention on the inside of the compound, but one of them might glance out to sea and see her on the beach if she did not move carefully. Ghosting from shadow to shadow, Grace used every rock, mound, and dip in the ground as she made her way to the water. Like a shadow she slipped into the sea, suppressing a hiss as the salt water touched the open wounds on her back. She began swimming, using the breaststroke until she was out of sight from the watchtowers. Grace floated on her back, letting the tide carry her away and catching rain in her mouth. She had no idea where land was, or if she would reach it at all. Trusting to fate, she managed to catch a few moments of rest before striking out, hoping to be as far away as possible before her absence was discovered.  
Grace swam for two days. The rain she had caught in her mouth was the only water she got. The only thing that really kept her going was the chance that she would be caught if she stopped. Soon she thought the water tasted less salty. That could mean a river close by. By yet another stroke of luck the tide was with her as she spotted land, helping her reach the beach near where a river emptied into the ocean. Grace caught her breath before stumbling across the dunes to the river. She immersed her whole body in it, washing off the salt, before taking several large gulps. Her thirst quenched for the moment, she curled up in the shadow of a dune and slept.  
It was morning when Grace awoke. After taking another drink she started off along the river, entering a lightly forested area. She was hungry, but had no idea how to find food. She walked for a day and a half before hearing something that sounded like a human. Pulling down her sleeves so they covered the backs of her hands, she cautiously approached, creeping forward silently in an effort to see who it was. To her surprise it was an elderly woman with a basket, standing underneath a tree with apples, or what she assumed were apples, from Marie's and Tori's descriptions, weighing down the boughs. Still cautious, Grace stepped out of the trees. The old woman turned and saw her.  
"Well, well, well, just when I needed help! Tell me, young one, can you climb trees?"  
"Yes." If Grace could scale a watchtower in the rain, an apple tree should pose no problem.  
"Good, good! Could you climb up and pick some apples for me? I'll give some to you."  
Grace climbed up the tree and began picking fruit, which she tossed into the basket that the old woman held up. When the basket was full, Grace climbed down. The woman nodded in a satisfied manner.  
"Good, good! Saves my old back, not having to shake them out. Take a few. You look as if you could use them."  
Grace took three apples, thanked the woman, and continued. When the old lady was well behind her, she devoured one apple, savoring the taste, and was about to start on another when she remembered that she had no idea where she was or where her next meal was coming from. With great restraint she put the apple away and continued walking. There seemed to almost be a pull that tugged her along the river. Grace didn't know if it was her imagination, but she was satisfied to follow it until something happened. That night she curled up in a grassy dip in the ground, clutching her apples to her as she fell asleep. The next morning she ate an apple and continued on, looking for anything she could use as food but not finding anything. That night she gave in to her hunger and ate her last apple. Despondently, she laid down, hoping tomorrow would take a turn for the better, but her hunger kept her awake.

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Sorry for the depressing chapter. I forgot to mention earlier that a good chunk of this story was written between eleven at night and two in the morning, which means it's either depressing or weird. It gets better later, though. Like in the next chapter. Promise!


	4. Safe Haven

Heh heh, sorry about the wait. School started up again, and I've been buried under homework. I'm starting to get caught up, though, so hopefully updates will start to be regular again.

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Weak from hunger and tired from near-constant vigilance, Grace continued the next morning, fully aware that if she didn't find food and a safe place soon, she wouldn't make it. At least she would die free. She was about ready to faint when she stumbled into a small clearing.  
"Grace!"  
It took Grace a second to recognize Marie, wearing a pale blue sweater and jeans and looking better than she ever had in the compound. It took her several more seconds to realize that she wasn't hallucinating.  
"Marie, I wasn't expecting to see you."  
Marie rushed over as Grace swayed, taking Grace's arm and putting it over her shoulder. "I wasn't expecting to see you, either. Come on. You need rest." She guided Grace along a path until they suddenly emerged from the forest into a huge clearing dominated by a large building. Marie helped her into the building, down a hall, and into a room with a bed and some other pieces of furniture.  
"Get some sleep." Marie said as she helped Grace into the bed and pulled the covers over her, "I'll get you a hot meal as soon as you wake up."  
Grace instantly fell into a deep and dreamless sleep. When she woke up she was refreshed, but ravenous. At first she couldn't remember where she was. Then it hit her. Somehow, she had found Marie. She opened her eyes. Marie was sitting close by, along with two humans. Grace tensed up.  
"Relax." Marie said soothingly, "They're friends. This is Dr. Miles Standpoint, and his wife Dr. Julia Standpoint. You can call them Miles and Julia. This is Grace."  
Julia stood up. "Nice to meet you. I'll get you something to eat. You look like you need it."  
She left. Grace looked at Marie. "How long was I asleep?"  
"A whole day. You must have been pretty wiped out."  
"A whole day?" Grace couldn't remember a time when she had slept more than a few hours, even when she had been on the run.  
"How did you escape? Did they finally take you on a mission?"  
"Heavens, Marie, don't pester her with questions until she's had something to eat." Julia scolded as she came in with a tray loaded with soup, bread, and a fruit salad, which she set on Grace's lap. Grace took a moment to enjoy the fact that it wasn't the bland, colorless mush she was used to before digging in with a will. Marie's eyes widened slightly as she watched. When Grace was done she asked, "Now will you tell me how you escaped?"  
Grace told them about her escape. By the time she was finished there wasn't a jaw in that room that wasn't on the floor.  
"Two straight days swimming and three walking, all on three apples?" Miles shook his head, "That alone is impressive, even if you don't count everything beforehand. No wonder you slept for a day. Most would sleep for a week, even if they survived."  
"If you're feeling up to it, could you come with me?" Julia asked, "Marie said you were beaten worse than anyone else, and I'd like to take a look at your back to make sure there isn't any permanent harm done."  
Grace glanced at Marie, who nodded, before setting the tray aside and swinging her legs over the edge of the bed. It was a little strange, as she could not remember ever sleeping in a bed. Slowly, she stood. The meal and rest had done her good, and Grace was able to stand without swaying. Marie walked beside her as Julia led them from the room. They went down a couple of hallways into another room which contained several cabinets, a counter with a sink, a tall stool, and several chairs. Julia gestured to the stool as she picked up a clipboard from off the counter. Marie sat down opposite Grace and gave an encouraging smile.  
"Now we get to see if I helped any."  
"Since I haven't bled to death yet, I think you did."  
Julia gently lifted the back of Grace's shirt. Her eyes widened.  
"Wow."  
Marie stood and went to look. Her eyes grew huge. There was not an inch of skin that was not scar tissue. New scars crisscrossed old ones, creating bumps and ridges. Half-healed wounds sliced across Grace's back like angry red rivers in a rocky landscape. Julia ran a hand over the scarred flesh. "Can you feel anything?"  
"No." Grace winced as Julia touched a cut. "Yes."  
Julia lifted the shirt higher. The scars went to her shoulders. On the right shoulder, branded too deeply to be covered with scars, was LMO-1.  
"Hold this."  
Marie held Grace's shirt up while Julia began writing on the clipboard.  
"Is it that bad?" Grace asked, a little uncomfortable with the silence.  
"Let's just say I'm surprised they could hurt you at all, with all the scars you have." Marie answered. Julia finished writing and went to a cabinet.  
"Marie, find some clothes while Grace gets a bath. Then put this on the cuts." She handed Marie a small jar.  
"Come on." Marie said, leading Grace to a small room with a bathtub and some counters. Marie set the jar down. "I'll be back with some clothes."  
She left. Grace filled the tub, took off her clothes, and blissfully sank into the hot water. After scrubbing to remove the grime accumulated over who knew how long, she laid back and relaxed. She must have dozed off, because when she woke up the water was lukewarm and her old clothes had been replaced with new ones. Grace got out, dried off, and put them on. The gray t-shirt and jeans were a little baggy, but otherwise fit reasonably well. She was about to go out when she caught sight of herself in the mirror that hung over the counter. Dark circles underlined red eyes that were sunken slightly in their sockets. Her face was tan, with a nose that was slightly crooked from being broken by a guard's fist. Black hair, still damp from her bath, was raggedly cut just above her shoulders. Though she was short, just barely over five feet, there was something in her eyes that made her seem much older and her arms, corded with muscle, left no doubt that she was able to defend herself. Grace stared at her reflection for a few moments. This is who she was. Who had she been? Had she even existed before? Shaking her head, she opened the door. Marie was standing there.  
"All done? We'd better put Julia's wonder-gunk on your back."  
"Wonder-gunk?" Grace asked as she handed Marie the jar and turned around.  
"That's what we call it. Julia makes it herself. You can put it on just about anything. It doesn't take very much, either. The only problem is that it smells."  
Grace learned the truth of this last statement when Marie opened the jar. An odor faintly resembling rotten vegetables permeated the air.  
"What's in that stuff?" she asked as Marie began slathering it over her cuts.  
"The only person who knows everything that's in it is Julia, and she won't tell anyone." she finished applying the ointment, "OK, all done. Come on, I'll show you around."  
As they started down the hall they ran into Miles, who had a clipboard in his hand and a pen behind his ear. He smiled when he saw them.  
"Just who I was looking for. Do you know what kind of morph you are, Grace?"  
Grace shook her head.  
"Then do you mind if I swab the inside of your cheek? I'll be able to extract the DNA and find out what kind of morph you are."  
"Um, OK." Grace said, a little hesitantly. Miles pulled out a q-tip and a test tube with a rubber stopper from his lab coat pocket. Grace opened her mouth and he gently swabbed the inside of her cheek.  
"There's one more thing I need to ask." he said as he dropped the q-tip into the test tube and replaced the stopper, "What were the letters and number on your back? Sometimes that can help us confirm what the computer says."  
"LMO one, all caps." Marie recited.  
"All caps?" Miles frowned as he took the pen from behind his ear, "Are you sure? Usually there's max two letters with only one capitalized. The only exception was yours."  
"What was yours?" Grace asked.  
"GM one, all caps." Marie answered before turned back to Miles. "You can ask Julia. She wrote it down."  
"I think I will, just to be sure. Oh, and you might want to find some shoes for Grace. You know how Julia gets when it comes to shoes."  
"I tried. There weren't any that would fit."  
"Next time you go into town you might take Grace along and find some that do. I heard that Tom has some more stuff ready to sell."  
"OK. I'll probably go into town tomorrow or the day after."  
"Sounds good. See you."  
Miles walked past them while they continued. "Julia is adamant that anyone who can wear shoes does." Marie explained, "She's kind of funny like that. But she's a good doctor, so it evens out. Miles works for Silph Co. It's a company that develops new technology. He had some experiments that he wanted to do in an isolated area, so he built this place. While you were walking, did you feel something like a pull?"  
"Yeah, a little."  
"That was one of his experiments. He wanted to see if he could attract certain kinds of Pokémon. Turns out it attracts morphs instead. When he found that out he left it on so any morph that escaped could find this place."  
"They take them in just like that?"  
"Yep. They come up with ways for morphs to pay them back, though, so you don't have to worry about that."  
"Like what?"  
"Well, some morphs are good at making things, so they make things to sell. When there's enough we take it to the nearest town and sell it. Those that aren't good at making things cook, clean, or help Miles test whatever new invention he's come up with. There's a ton of stuff that needs doing, so everyone can keep busy. We'll find you something to do in a few days."  
"I could start right now." Grace said.  
"Yeah, but Julia won't let you." Marie shrugged, "She insists that everyone has a few days to rest before starting work. If it wasn't for the fact that you need shoes she probably wouldn't let me take you into town."  
They passed an open door where a Munchlax-morph was chopping up carrots. He waved as they passed before continuing his work.  
"That was Bart." Marie said, "He's the head cook, and a very good one, too."  
"Who goes into town besides you?"  
"Julia and Miles will go occasionally, when the need takes them. Sometimes another morph will come too, but most avoid it. They're kind of conspicuous, and they don't like people staring at them."  
"So that's why you go."  
"Yep. The only things that are really obvious are my eyes and hair, and I usually wear a hat." Marie pushed open the door to a small room with two beds, a dresser, and a chair. One bed was nicely made, while the other looked a little rumpled. "We'll be sharing this room. Just remember that it's the third on the right."  
Marie continued showing Grace around, introducing her to any morph they came across. Grace was acquainted with many of them already, and they greeted her cheerfully. She was amazed at how happy and healthy they looked. The ones she did not know also greeted her cheerfully. Outside, Marie showed her a large garden where several morphs were busy weeding.  
"We end up growing a lot of our own food. Any extra that we have, we sell. A lot of morphs who don't like wearing shoes work outside. They go barefoot and say they don't want to get their shoes dirty."  
A Scyther-morph came up. "I got some more things finished. You want to look at them?"  
"Sure, Tom."  
They followed him to a large shed. Inside was a dining set, several nightstands, some small tables, and a variety of chairs, all beautifully carved.  
"Very nice." Marie said. Tom shrugged.  
"Jenna's making some cushions for some of the chairs. Says she'll be done by tonight."  
"Excellent. I'll go into town tomorrow."  
Tom nodded before turning to a block of wood and starting to carve it with the scythes that sprouted from the back of his hands. Marie led Grace outside.  
"Tom's the main money maker around here." she explained, "He's amazing with wood. We've gotten some pretty good offers for some of his pieces. He's not so good around others, though. He keeps to his workshop and only comes in for meals."  
Marie finished showing her around, and they went back inside. They found Julia in the room where she had examined Grace earlier that day, writing something on a clipboard.  
"Julia, I couldn't find any shoes that would fit Grace. Could I take her to town tomorrow and find some?"  
"Could you find some without taking her?"  
"Maybe, but they might not fit right. It would be better if Grace could try them on before we buy them."  
Julia sighed. "All right, just make sure she doesn't do anything to tire herself out. And try to find some sandals that will fit."  
"Thank you."  
They left the room. Marie beamed.  
"Great! Now I can show you around town. Let's try to find some sandals."  
They went to what Marie called the shoe room. Every wall was covered in racks of shoes. After perusing through several shelves Marie came up with some sandals that were only a little too big for Grace.  
"That should do until we can get you some shoes. Let's go get some dinner."  
Dinner was held in a large room with several long wooden tables and matching benches. Grace had the feeling they were Tom's work. The food was served buffet-style on a long table running perpendicular to the other tables. Quite a few morphs were already there. Marie led Grace to a row of sinks that stood near the food table. Following her example, Grace washed her hands before taking a plate and going to the food table. There was a large variety of food, and she had no idea what she was going to take. After a few moments she decided to take a little of everything. Marie smiled when she saw what Grace was doing.  
"I did the same thing my first time, too. Don't worry, you'll find out what you like."  
Grace noticed that Marie's plate was piled mainly with salad. They sat down near the end of one of the tables. As they ate Grace was introduced to the few morphs she had not met already. Grace noticed that Tom came in, sat by himself, and left quickly, presumably to get back to his work. Jenna, a Ledian-morph, stopped by.  
"I finished the cushions. Do you want me to tell Tom there's going to be a telling tonight?"  
"If you would, I would be grateful."  
Jenna nodded and left.  
"What's a telling?" Grace asked.  
"It's a thing that started up before I came here. The newest morph tells how they escaped. Everyone is there unless there's a good reason. Do you mind doing it?"  
"Not really." Grace had figured on being asked multiple times how she had escaped. Telling everyone at once would be much easier, though she didn't know if she liked the idea of talking in front of a large crowd. Once dinner was over Marie took her to a big room filled with couches, chairs, and stools, as well as some comfy-looking mats on the floor. She and Marie took a couple of chairs near the front of the room as other morphs began trickling in.  
"This is the lounge, where everyone comes to relax." Marie explained, "This is also where tellings are held and any important announcements are made."  
There were a few good-natured squabbles as the best seats were taken, but everyone found a place. Soon every morph was there. Marie got up and introduced Grace before sitting down and motioning for her to start. Grace stood and began telling of her escape, adding no emphases or embellishments. By the time she was done every eyebrow was raised and quite a few jaws had dropped. With a little shrug Grace sat down. There was silence for a few moments, then everyone burst into applause. She looked at Marie, confused.  
"They're impressed." Marie explained, "No one's ever done what you've done, and I doubt anyone will, either."  
Grace shrugged again, a little red beginning to creep into her cheeks. Several morphs had questions, which Grace answered, then everyone headed in the direction of bed. She followed Marie to their room, where Marie crawled under the covers of the rumpled bed and muttered something about turning off the light. Grace hit the light switch and crawled under the covers of her own bed. For a little while she laid there, thinking. She had dreamed of being free for so long. Now that she was, she could hardly believe it. It was like a dream, so good it couldn't be real. Not only had she escaped, she had found Marie, as well as a place where she could stay without worrying about being chased or what would happen to her. Then she became aware that Marie was awake. Grace knew that she wanted to talk, but didn't know if Grace was asleep or not.  
"I never thought I'd see you again." Grace said quietly.  
"Same here. I was hoping we'd meet again, though. I'm glad we did." There was a long pause. "I was worried about you. I...I was afraid that one day they'd beat you so bad you wouldn't survive, and that I would never see you again."  
"You would see me again. I'd just be keeping Tori company until you came."  
"I miss him." Marie whispered.  
"So do I." Grace was silent a moment. "I bet wherever he is, he's laughing at us."  
Marie chuckled. After a few moments she went quiet again. "Grace, can I ask you something?"  
"Sure."  
"How can you be so sure there's an afterlife?"  
The question caught Grace off guard, and she had to think for a little while. "I guess it just makes sense to me. What would be the point of life if there wasn't anything after death?"  
"You really think we'll see Tori again?"  
"Yes I do, and I think when it happens he'll laugh at us for crying over him so much."  
"Probably." Marie yawned. "We'd better get to sleep. Julia won't let you go into town with me if you look tired. Good night."  
Soon the only sound was Marie's soft, steady breathing. Grace contemplated Marie's last couple of questions. She really didn't know why she believed so strongly in an afterlife. She just knew there had to be something, somewhere you went when you left this life. Could it be from her unremembered life from before? If not, where did it come from? With a quiet sigh, Grace fell asleep.


	5. Into Town

The next morning Grace awoke wondering if the events of the previous day had been a dream. Then she looked over and saw that Marie's bed was empty. She must still be recovering if she hadn't woken up when Marie had gotten up. Usually she was a light sleeper. Silently relieved that it hadn't been a dream, Grace got up and started down the hall, a little unsure of where to go. As she went by the kitchen doors Bart, the head cook, beckoned for her to come in. Slightly hesitant, Grace entered the meticulously clean kitchen.  
"Breakfast is always in the kitchen from six to nine." he said as he motioned for her to take a seat at the spotless table, "Any later than that and you have to wait until lunch, unless you have a good reason. Eat up." He slid a stack of pancakes, soaked in butter and maple syrup, over to her. Grace wondered for a moment if she would be able to eat it all, as she doubted that her stomach had digested all of last night's dinner. Then, figuring there wasn't much she could do about it, she dug in. She was hungrier than she thought. Grace was on her last pancake when Marie came in. Marie was wearing a white knitted cap, which hid her green hair.  
"I brought you something." she said as she sat down beside Grace and handed her a pair of gloves. Grace carefully examined them. They were made of plain black leather, thin and flexible at the palm and thicker on the back. The fingers were cut off about halfway down, allowing better movement. The wrists were adjustable. A large hole had been cut onto the back of each glove, cleverly done so that one side was open when the wrist strap was undone.  
"Thanks." Grace said as she pulled on the gloves. They fit her perfectly.  
"I thought they might help you be a little more inconspicuous when we went into town. I'm glad I got the holes the right size."  
"Now she just looks like a punk with those spikes sticking out like that." Bart said as he came over with another stack of pancakes, which he placed in front of Marie. "I gave my list to Julia. She said she had some things she wanted you to pick up as well."  
"Did she call Ivan and tell him we're coming?" Marie asked through a mouthful of pancake.  
"I believe so. You'd better ask her. And don't talk with your mouth full."  
Marie swallowed obediently. "Yes, sir."  
Bart chuckled as he went to cook up another batch of pancakes. Grace finished her breakfast and waited for Marie. When they had washed up they went and found Julia in the exam room.  
"Did you call Ivan?" Marie asked as Julia handed her a list.  
"Yes. He said he'll expect you at the usual time." Julia gave Grace a stern look. "And remember, don't do anything to tire yourself out."  
Grace nodded once in understanding before following Marie outside. A large van, resembling a moving van, was parked by Tom's workshop. Several morphs were loading the furniture into the van. They finished as Marie and Grace came up. One of the morphs tossed a key to Marie.  
"All loaded up. Have fun."  
"Sure thing." Marie got behind the wheel while Grace got in the passenger side. The van roared to life and they drove down a bumpy dirt road that cut through the trees. After about forty-five minutes they turned onto a paved road. Half an hour later, a small town came into view. Grace stared as they neared it. While it wasn't anywhere near a large city, it was the biggest settlement she'd seen. A few people waved to them as Marie drove past. The van finally stopped at a large warehouse at the edge of town. A large balding man came out to greet them as they left the van. He was dressed in a long-sleeved denim shirt and jeans, with brown work boots that had seen better days. What little dark hair he still had was combed over his balding crown. Grace saw that, though he was on the heavy side, he still possessed quite a bit of muscle.  
"Hello, Ivan." Marie said as she shook hands with the man.  
"Ah, Marie, you are looking more beautiful than ever." he motioned to Grace, "Another one of your cousins, I presume?"  
"Yes. This is Grace. Grace, this is Ivan. He's the one that buys most of Tom's stuff."  
"A pleasure to meet you." Ivan shook her hand. Grace could tell he was surprised at her strong grip. "May I take a look at the goods?" he asked Marie.  
Marie nodded and opened up the back of the van. Ivan visually examined the contents.  
"Tom just keeps getting better as time goes by." he ran a hand along the dining table, "I'll take it all."  
Ivan and Marie walked to the side of the van, bartering. Grace followed, but stopped some distance off, unsure of what to do. She heard someone coming up behind her and whirled around, tensed. It was a brown-haired young man wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and work boots. He smiled at her.  
"Hi, I'm Calvin."  
"Grace." Grace relaxed a bit, sensing that Calvin had no bad intentions.  
"You one of Marie's cousins?"  
Grace nodded. Apparently Marie had introduced every morph who had come into town with her as her cousin.  
"Well, nice to meet you." They shook hands, and Calvin motioned to the back of the van. "Do you want to help us unload? A few of our guys came down with the flu, so we're a little short on help."  
Grace could tell that he didn't think she would be of much help. He was a foot taller than she and was obviously used to lifting heavy loads. Perhaps it was time for him to learn that size wasn't everything. Grace nodded and followed him to the back of the van, where two other men were debating on how to move the dining table. It was solid oak and large enough to comfortably sit six people. It had taken three morphs to get it loaded. Ignoring the others, Grace crouched under the table, braced her shoulders and upper back against it, and stood. She winced slightly at the pressure on her cuts, then dismissed the pain. She had borne far worse.  
"Where do you want it?" she asked, carefully balancing the table on her back. For a few moments everyone stared, eyes wide and jaws slack.  
"Um...right over here." Calvin said. Grace followed him into the warehouse and gently set the table down where he pointed. Calvin still looked a little stunned as he led her back outside. With the table out of the way, the others were able to get to the rest of the furniture. Grace helped to unload the rest of it. She noticed that some of the chairs now sported cushions, most beautifully embroidered. Jenna's work, she presumed. When the van was unloaded Grace returned to where Ivan and Marie were wrapping up the bartering. She got there just in time to hear Ivan say, "I'll get the money and a receipt."  
He left, and she heard Calvin come up beside her. Wait, how did she know it was Calvin?  
"Your cousin's amazing." Calvin said, "It would have taken five men to lift that dining table, but she picked it up like it was nothing and carried it in all by herself."  
Marie's eyebrows went up, then she sighed. "Grace, you know Julia said not do to anything to tire yourself."  
"I didn't do it to tire myself." Grace replied, "I did it to move the table. Besides, I'm not tired."  
Calvin laughed. "Strong and witty. Quite the combination. I'll see you later."  
Calvin left. Marie just smiled as she rolled her eyes. "We'd better make sure Julia doesn't find out, or she'll have both our hides."  
Ivan came out and handed Marie a thick envelope. "It was a pleasure doing business with one of such good looks and quick tongue. Give Tom my regards."  
Marie thanked him. He left, and Marie and Grace got back into the van and drove off.  
"Now we do the shopping." Marie said. They went to several different stores to buy the items on the list. Marie proved to be very good at finding deals and spending the least amount of money possible. Grace followed like a shadow, silently analyzing what was going on and trying to figure out exactly how Marie did it. Finally they were down to the last item on the list:Grace's shoes. They went to a clothing store and found a pair that was on sale. The shoes were black sneakers with a blue teardrop shape on the sides. Grace tried them on. They fit, though she was unused to shoes and found them a bit uncomfortable.  
"You don't have to wear them until we get home." Marie said as they got in the van and started back. Grace thought for a moment. Home. She finally had a home. Someplace where she wouldn't have to worry about survival, where she wouldn't get beaten every day. Someplace where she could belong. Home was a beautiful word, she decided.  
They were both quiet on the way back, each with their own thoughts. "You'd better put on your shoes." Marie said as they pulled up. Grace pulled on her shoes and got out. Squirming her toes, she wondered if she would ever get used to them. Miles came over to them as Marie opened the back of the van.  
"The others can unload." he said, "There's something you two need to see."  
Intrigued, they followed him through the halls into a room which Grace hadn't been in before. Several computer screens were set into one wall. A table with a keyboard, mouse, papers, and other miscellaneous items scattered on it stood in front of them, and a comfy-looking desk chair was pushed under it. Miles pulled out the chair, sat down and began typing.  
"The computer finished analyzing Grace's DNA last night. What it found was mainly human and Lucario."  
"That doesn't sound so bad." Marie said.  
"If that was it, then I wouldn't be worried." A list of Pokémon came up on one of the screens. Beside each name was a percentage, followed by a bar graph. "The thing is, each one is only thirty percent of the total DNA. I found more than ten other fragments of DNA, some of which were so small I couldn't identify them."  
"So is that why Grace doesn't really look like a true morph?"  
"That's the conclusion I came to. The various DNA seems to enhance each separate ability while canceling out most physical aspects. What really interests me, though, is this one." He pointed to the third one down on the list. "This is the next highest at fifteen percent, right under human and Lucario. However, I haven't found a match for it."  
"So you have no idea what it is."  
"Correct. Going off a hunch, I got some of Marie's DNA and analyzed that."  
"How'd you get it?" Marie asked suspiciously.  
"I borrowed your brush and took some hair from it. I figured you wouldn't mind. The computer finished about an hour ago." Another list popped up next to the first. This one had three things listed, with the third one being quite small in comparison to the first two. "Gardevoir and human are dominant, obviously. But I found the same unidentifiable DNA as well."  
Something was nagging at Grace's memory. There was something important, something that might help them, but she wasn't sure what. Suddenly it clicked.  
"M one five one."  
What?" Marie and Miles asked at the same time.  
"M one five one. It was above the door of our hut. Even though the other huts were crowded, there were never more than three in ours. Maybe it means something."  
"Hm." Miles thought for a moment, then began furiously typing. When he was finished the result was on a third screen. On the top it said, "National Pokédex: Mew, #151." Below was some information and an artist's rendition of what Mew looked like. Miles frowned. "Mew? I don't know if that's possible. Mew's a legend. I don't know if it even exists." He typed some more. After a few minutes a new article was on screen. It described a journey some scientists had taken into a remote jungle looking for Mew. According to the article, the scientists had been successful in finding a focilized eyelash from the legendary, but not in finding the Pokémon itself.  
"It seems a scientist leaked the information and posted the code for the DNA." With a few keystrokes Miles began comparing the DNA to the unknowns. A minute later a box popped up reading, "97% match". Miles' jaw nearly hit the floor. "How on earth did Team Rocket get Mew's DNA?"  
Marie looked thoughtful. "That means..."  
"Tori also had Mew DNA." Grace finished. Marie looked at her, startled that Grace had seemed to read her thoughts.  
"So GM must mean Gardevoir Mew." Miles mused, "And LM is Lucario Mew. What does the O stand for, though?"  
"Other, maybe?" Marie said, "There were a lot of different parts of DNA, so it would have been impracticable to do all of them. You'd just need the first two and something to signify that there were others."  
Miles nodded. "That makes sense." he looked at Grace, "So you are not technically one type of morph, though you could probably get away with saying you're a Lucario-morph if you wanted to."  
Grace shrugged. She was what she was. It hadn't bothered her before, and it wasn't going to bother her now. Marie beamed.  
"At least we knew what you are now. Oh, I should probably get the money and receipts to Crowley. He gets a little grumpy when I don't."  
"Good idea. Julia will want to make sure Grace got her shoes, too."  
Grace followed Marie as she delivered the money and receipts to Crowley, an Alakazam-morph who handled the accounting, then to the exam room. Julia smiled when she saw them.  
"Got Grace some shoes, then? Excellent. How are your cuts doing?"  
Grace stood still while Julia examined her wounds and put some more wonder-gunk on them.  
"They're healing quite nicely. I think you should be able to do some work tomorrow. Nothing too strenuous, though."  
"I'll try to find you some outside work so you can take your shoes off." Marie whispered as they left. Grace nodded once in thanks. They went and helped put their purchases away, then went to the lounge until dinner. There were a few other morphs there, and Marie talked with them while Grace listened. Marie didn't mention the fact that she had Mew DNA or that Grace had DNA from over twelve different species, though she did talk about Grace carrying the dining table. The other morphs, being well acquainted with Julia's no-work-until-I-say-so policy, promised not to say anything while looking at Grace with new respect. They knew what she had gone through to escape, and many were well aware of how much she had been beaten. To be lifting anything even remotely heavy after only two days of rest was astounding, to say the least. Grace merely shrugged when someone commented on it to her. Being subjected to far more difficult tasks while in the compound, she couldn't see why everyone else thought it was so amazing.

* * *

And that's it for this chapter. I apologize for the bad ending. I'm terrible with ending chapters, but I'm working on it. Promise. Anyway, reviews are always welcome!


	6. New Toys and an Old Face

The next day Grace went to work in the garden, hoeing up weeds. She wriggled her toes contentedly in the dirt. She would get used to her shoes eventually, she knew, but for now, it felt good to go barefoot. As she worked, she thought. There were so many morphs still in captivity. She wanted to help them, to show them that there was a place where they could belong. There was no way she could get into the compound itself, but she was well aware that morphs were often taken on missions. What kind of missions, Grace didn't really know, but at some point there had to be a place where a morph might possibly escape. Every morph Miles and Julia had taken in, with the exception of Grace, had escaped while on a mission. However, relatively few ever got that chance. There had to be a way for her to help. A couple of days later Grace quietly voiced her thoughts to Marie. Marie looked thoughtful.  
"I'll mention it to Miles. He'll probably come up with some way to help."  
True to her word, Marie spoke with Miles, who called them to his lab a few days later. He looked thoughtful and a little bit excited as well.  
"Marie said you wanted to help other morphs." he said, "And I think I have just the thing." He held up what looked like flesh-colored wire, curled at one end with small knobs at each tip. "This is something I've been working on. It's a mike that's practically invisible when worn. You can also hear whoever is on the other end. Try it on."  
Grace accepted the mike. It almost disappeared in her hand. She hooked the curled end over her ear, feeling the other end near the corner of her mouth. Marie's eyebrows rose.  
"I can't see it at all. That's amazing."  
"I'm glad you think so." Miles smiled, "I also have a camera that I'm trying to attach to a hair clip, but it's still in progress. When it's finished you can test them out for me. That way you'll have some backup and I'll get my things tested."  
"Thank you. I appreciate it." Grace said, handing the mike back. Miles set it down and rubbed his hands together.  
"This also gives me a chance to test out my Pidgey-cams."  
"Pidgey-cams?" Marie asked.  
"I've been training a couple of Pidgey to fly around and look for a certain target. With some cameras I've developed, they can look for any Team Rocket activity. I'll get them sent out right away and let you know when they've found something."  
"Who's going to be on the other end?" Grace asked.  
"I will." Marie volunteered.  
"Then it's settled." Miles said, "I'll let you know when the camera's ready."  
A couple of days later Miles once again called them to his lab. With a small flourish he showed Grace a black hair clip with a small black cylinder attached to it.  
"This is the camera. It has two lenses, so we'll be able to see what's in front of you and what's behind you. That'll give you an edge." Miles put the clip in her hair, then pressed some keys. Two screens lit up, one showing what Grace saw and the other showing the door. As Grace moved her head around the views also changed. Miles handed her the mike. "The Pidgey haven't found anything yet, but we can still test these out, just so they don't malfunction in the middle of your rescue. Go outside and walk around, and I'll tell Marie how to work everything."  
Grace nodded and went outside. There was a burst of static in her ear, but nothing else. After a few moments there was more static.  
"All I'm getting is static." she said, wondering if they could hear her. After a few moments she heard Miles' voice.  
"Can you hear me now?"  
"Yes."  
"Great. Try speaking as softly as possible."  
Grace complied, going so quiet it was barely a whisper.  
"Excellent, we can still hear you. Just don't shout, or you'll blast out the eardrums of whoever is on this end. I'm going to hand this over to Marie. Try to get it worked out so that you two can work together smoothly. OK?"  
"OK." There was a moment of silence, then Marie's voice came over the mike.  
"Hi Grace. Can you hear me?"  
"Loud and clear. Can you tell me what's behind me?"  
"Trees. Wait a second, there's movement...It's Tom. He's heading straight for you."  
Grace turned around just as Tom came up.  
"Have you seen Jenna around?" he asked.  
"She was in the lounge, last time I saw her." Marie said.  
"I think she might be in the lounge." Grace answered. Tom nodded thanks and went off.  
"I believe we can call this a success." Marie said. There was a short pause. "Miles says you can come back."  
Grace headed back to the lab. Marie was wearing a headset, which she took off when Grace came in.  
"Now we just have to see if it works over long distances." she said. Grace hoped it would. Something like this might very well save her life.  
The next morning at breakfast Miles came in.  
"The Pidgey have found something. I'm pretty sure there's a morph in the group."  
Grace and Marie inhaled the rest of their french toast and followed him to his lab. On one screen was a group that was definitely Team Rocket. However, the Pidgey was flying from tree to tree, so it was hard to tell anything else.  
"That looks like a morph in the middle there, but it's really hard to tell." Marie said, squinting at the screen. Miles handed Grace the mike and camera.  
"They're going west, straight inland, so if you go north you should run into them. Just head out the front door and turn right. Good luck."  
Grace put on the mike and camera and went in the direction that Miles had indicated. She had gained all her strength back and was able to move at a ground-eating lope. Occasionally Marie would check to see if the mike was still working or give her slight course corrections. Grace found out that Miles had put a tracker in the camera, so she wouldn't have to worry about getting lost.  
"They're dead ahead. Better go slowly."  
Grace slowed down to a walk, ghosting through the trees as she kept watch for the enemy. A movement ahead of her made her pause. A group of men dressed in black with a red R on their chests marched past, unaware that they were being watched.  
"What are you going to do?" Marie asked.  
"Hope the morph has enough brains to lag behind." Grace whispered. Then she stepped just close enough for the group to get a glimpse of her before backing off.  
"I think there was someone there."  
"We can't let anyone compromise our mission. Get him!"  
Grace took off running, making sure she was going slow enough that they could still see her.  
"Are you crazy?!" Marie's voice crackled over the mike.  
"Just tell me when you think the morph is behind the rest of the group." Grace answered. After a little while Marie came back on.  
"It looks like someone dropped behind. Might be the morph."  
Grace put on a burst of speed. "Are they out of sight?"  
"Yep. You lost them."  
Grace quickly jumped and grabbed a low branch. Saying a silent prayer she climbed up and hid in the foliage. The group ran beneath her. Sure enough, a figure came up behind, going much slower than the rest. His odd gait signaled that he wasn't completely human, though his hat obscured his features. Grace dropped in front of him. Her eyes widened when she saw who it was.  
"Seth?"  
"Grace? What on earth are you doing here?" The Wartortle-morph looked genuinely surprised.  
"Tell you later. We'd better get going before they realize they've lost me."  
Grace took off, leading him perpendicular to the path the group was taking and occasionally pausing to obliterate their tracks. Seth was putting in his best effort, but he was beginning to lag.  
"They've given up and are going back the way they came." Marie said, "I think you're clear."  
Grace began heading back, guided by the pull that had lead her there in the first place. She walked for Seth's sake. He looked like he could barely do that, much less run. Finally, they reached the clearing. Seth stopped in amazement.  
"Is this heaven?" he asked when he saw the other morphs going about their work. Grace smiled a little.  
"No. This is home."  
"Miles told Julia you were bringing in another morph. She's waiting in the exam room. I'll meet you there."  
Grace led Seth to the exam room. Sure enough, Marie, Julia, and Miles were waiting there. Marie beamed.  
"Hi, Seth. It's good to see you again."  
"I must be either dead or dreaming." Seth muttered.  
"I'm Dr. Julia Standpoint and this is my husband, Dr. Miles Standpoint. You can call us Julia and Miles, respectively. I assume you already know Marie and Grace. Marie, would you please get him something to eat?"  
Marie nodded and left. At Julia's insistence Seth sat on the stool and let her examine the lash marks on his back. His eyes never left Grace.  
"This is the second time you've saved my life."  
"I'm just glad I could help." Grace, said, her cheeks turning a little red. The corner of Seth's mouth twitched upwards.  
"I'm glad you could help as well." he paused, "You gave everyone hope after you escaped. During the first couple of days we thought you would be caught and dragged back, but when you weren't, we began to think that maybe we had a chance. How did you do it?"  
Marie came in with a loaded tray. "Bart says if you plan on making a habit of this to try to come back closer to mealtimes." she said as she set the tray on the counter by Seth. He looked at the food with wide eyes.  
"I don't know if I can eat all of that."  
"It's a lot easier than you think."  
Marie spoke the truth, and Seth devoured the food. While he ate, Grace explained how she had escaped, telling it briefly and simply as she had done the previous two times. She finished about the same time Seth did. Meanwhile, Julia had finished examining his back and had anointed his wounds with some of her wonder-gunk. Seth, his focus solely on Grace and the food, hadn't noticed the smell.  
"If anyone else had said they did that, I don't know if I'd believe them." Seth said as he licked his fingers, "As it is, I'm amazed you made it. I doubt anyone else could have."  
"Grace is pretty amazing." Marie said. Grace turned a little redder and occupied herself with taking off the camera and mike and handing them to Miles.  
"I believe we can call these a success." Miles said, sparing Grace of further embarrassment, "I'll let you know when the Pidgey-cams find anything else."  
He left. Julia gave Grace a stern look. "Go get some rest. Marie can give Seth the grand tour."  
Grace nodded and went to the lounge. Since it was still a while until dinner there was no one else in there. She sat down, thinking. There had to be a better way than to show herself. They might begin to expect it and plan accordingly. But how else was she supposed to rescue the morphs? Grace began coming up with ideas, but ran into troubles such as the size of the morph and the terrain. Feeling a little discouraged, she went out and began working in the garden. As she worked, she came up with more ideas, these ones better than the last. By dinner she had a few decent ones, though they depended more or less on the size of the morph. After dinner there was another telling. Seth told how Grace had helped him escape while Grace kept her face reasonably emotionless, meaning she didn't blush at all when Seth praised her more than she though he should have. After he finished she quietly excused herself and went to bed, saying the rescue had tired her more than she thought it had. Marie came in a short while later.  
"Everyone thinks it's strange you left so early."  
Grace didn't reply. Marie, however, was not so easily dissuaded.  
"You're a hero, Grace. Accept it. You've been a hero for as long as I've known you. The other morphs respect you. They look up to you."  
"I didn't want to be a hero." Grace said quietly, "I just wanted to help others."  
Marie smiled a little as she sat on her bed. "That's what makes you a hero. You help others to help others, not for fame."  
"But I got the fame anyway. How do I deal with it?" Grace asked, sitting up.  
"Don't blow it off like it's no big deal. It is, especially for the ones you saved. Don't get a swelled head, either."  
"I got the don'ts, but what do I do?"  
"Accept their thanks and try to live the way you want others to live. That's about all I can tell you."  
Grace was quiet a moment, thinking. "Thanks."  
"No problem. Good night."  
The next day Grace tried to follow Marie's advice. It was a lot harder than it sounded. Grace tried her best, though, and everyone seemed to accept it. She continued to work in the garden, even after Julia said she could have the day off. In truth, Grace didn't have much else to do. However, this only gained her more respect in her fellow morphs. Seth turned out to be a decent repairman and began his work cheerfully.


	7. Ethan

I just realized that I've been neglecting to update this story. XP I don't really have an excuse other than corrupted memory. Please don't hate me.

* * *

A week went by. One afternoon Marie found Grace in the garden.  
"Miles says the Pidgey-cams found something."  
Grace dropped her hoe and followed her to Miles' lab. Two screens featured the Pidgey-cams. A third showed a still image.  
"This was a pretty good image I got from one of the cameras." Miles said, "You can see the morph there, near the rear of the group."  
Marie and Grace looked closely. "It looks like a Ralts-morph." Marie said after a few moments of careful scrutiny. Grace nodded. Whatever the morph was, it was small enough for her to use one of her ideas. Miles handed her the mike and camera.  
"Just start north. We'll give you any course corrections."  
Grace put on her equipment and headed out. She found the group easily enough. The Ralts-morph was lagging behind, his short legs giving him a clear disadvantage.  
"Have they been going in a straight line?" Grace whispered.  
"Yep. No turns of any kind. Please tell me you aren't going to do anything crazy like last time."  
The corner of Grace's mouth twitched upwards. "If you mean 'are you going to show yourself,' then no, not intentionally." She went ahead of the group until she found a sturdy tree with some low branches and lots of foliage. Quickly climbing, she hid herself on one of the lower branches and waited. Sure enough, the group of Team Rocket grunts marched directly underneath her. The morph was now a little ways behind them. As he passed under her, Grace swung down. Hanging by her legs, she clasped a hand on his mouth, grabbed his arm with her other hand, and pulled him up. He looked absolutely terrified as she set him on the branch.  
"Don't make any noise." she breathed in his ear. He nodded, and Grace removed her hand. It was not long before the grunts realized the morph was missing. With shouts of "spread out!" and "look everywhere!" they searched. Grace motioned for the morph to stay put and silently moved to the opposite side of the tree. Taking a pebble from her pocket, she hurled it with all her might.  
"I heard a noise over there. That must be it!"  
The Rockets began running in that direction. Grace hurried to where the morph was. When the last grunt was out of sight she jumped down.  
"Get on my back." she whispered. The morph complied, and she took off running. Occasionally stopping to cover her tracks, she took a long, winding route, though she couldn't hear any sound of pursuers.  
"I'm really glad you're not an Onix-morph." she said as she ran, "I'm Grace, by the way."  
"Ethan." was the quiet reply. "Where are you taking me?"  
"Someplace safe. You'll see when we get there."  
"I'd love to see you do that with an Onix-morph." Marie said. Grace rolled her eyes and continued running. Finally, they made it back. Grace let Ethan off her back.  
"This is it."  
A bell rang, causing Ethan to nearly jump out of his skin. Grace smiled a little.  
"That means we're just in time for dinner."  
She led him to the exam room, where Julia and Marie were waiting. Marie beamed when she saw who it was.  
"Hi, Ethan. It's really nice to see you again."  
Marie!" Ethan perked up and went over to her. Grace left to get some dinner for the new morph. Bart grinned when she came in.  
"I'm glad you decided to come back closer to dinner." he said as he piled food onto a tray. Grace smiled to herself as she carried the tray back, trying to imagine the tiny Ralts-morph eating all of it. Apparently Ethan had her same doubts, judging from the way he stared at the food with wide eyes.  
"Is that all for me?"  
"If you can eat it all." Grace said as she set the tray down in front of him. Much to the surprise of everyone, Ethan managed to eat all of it.  
"You must have a hollow leg." Marie said as Ethan licked the crumbs off his fingers. She then proceeded to explain about the tellings. "You don't have to do it tonight, if you don't want to. You did just get here, after all."  
"Oh, I don't mind." Ethan said quietly, "I'll remember it better if I do it tonight."  
Marie nodded and led the way to the lounge. Most of the morphs were already there, having heard that a new morph had just arrived. When the last of the stragglers came in Ethan told of his escape in his quiet way, openly admitting how frightened he had been when Grace had grabbed him and ending by saying how grateful he was to have been rescued. Grace acknowledged his thanks with a nod, not exactly sure what else to do. By now everyone had grown used to Grace's quiet nature and accepted it without question.


	8. First Encounter

After about five days another rocket group was sighted. Miles said he thought he saw something else, but wasn't sure exactly what. With a "be careful" from Marie, Grace went out. Unfortunately, the morph she was going to rescue was an Aggron-morph and her previous ideas wouldn't work. As she crouched behind a fallen tree and tried to come up with something, Marie suddenly said, "There's someone behind you."  
"What's he or she doing?" Grace whispered almost inaudibly.  
"Right now, it looks like he's just watching you. It's definitely a guy. He's dressed in the usual rocket uniform, he seems to be a little taller than you, and his hair is short. Other than that, he looks pretty much like you. He even has the spikes on his hands, though they look smaller than yours."  
Grace frowned, but made no other movement. "Tell me the second he moves."  
Several seconds went by. Then Marie said, "He's tensing up."  
Grace dove to the side just in time to avoid a fist. Lashing out with her legs, she managed to buy herself enough time to get on her feet. The stranger did look like her. Had Marie not warned her earlier, it might have caught her off guard. Either he knew what to expect or he wasn't easily surprised, for he didn't so much as bat an eye.  
"My orders are to bring you back alive." he said.  
"You're going to have a hard time doing that." Grace answered as she dodged another fist.  
"Why's that?"  
"Because I would rather die than go back."  
Her conviction made him pause. Grace tripped him, but he got back up with lightning speed. They exchanged a few more blows, neither having the upper hand.  
"You're fast, LMO one." he grunted as he took a glancing blow to the side.  
"That's not my name."  
"What is your name, then?"  
"Grace. What's yours?"  
He paused, as if realizing something. Grace's fist collided soundly with his temple, and he collapsed. Panting slightly, she took off after the group. She found them and almost fell into a deep hidden gully in the process. This gave her an idea. Creeping along the gully, she found a place where the Rockets would either have to jump or find another way around. Making sure she was in line with them, she crouched and waited.  
"Is the morph last in line still?"  
"Yep, as far as I can tell. You aren't going to jump out at them, are you?"  
"No, but I might get more bruises than I already have."  
"Here they come."  
Grace heard them coming. One by one, they leaped over her hiding spot. Counting carefully, she reached up and grabbed the Aggron-morph's leg. The morph fell on top of her, and she restrained a yell. By some miracle the morph hadn't made a sound, other than a startled grunt.  
"Be very quiet and follow me." Grace whispered. Ignoring her bruises, she led the morph along the gully, praying for some time.  
"The grunts have noticed. They're splitting up and searching along the ditch." Marie said.  
"Great." Grace whispered as she began searching. By some twist of luck she managed to spot a hole in the wall of the gully, almost totally hidden by plant growth. She gestured for the morph, whom she recognized as one called Lyra, to get in before crawling in herself. There was barely enough room for both of them. Trying to breathe as quietly as possible, Grace watched as three grunts walked up the gully, poking at the overhanging plants with sticks. One actually prodded Grace, but she remained silent and they left. After a long while they came back, muttering.  
"They've regrouped and are leaving."  
Grace sighed in relief as she crawled out of the hole. Lyra followed suit.  
"Grace, what on earth are you doing here?"  
"Helping you escape. Unless you'd prefer being with the Rockets?"  
Lyra gestured for her to lead the way. Grace did so, and they arrived without mishap. She smiled to herself at Lyra's wide eyes. It really was a beautiful sight. Grace saw Tom returning to his shop and guessed that it was shortly after lunch. Marie and Julia were waiting in the exam room. Marie was looking worried. After the introductions, she said, "Are you all right? It looked like you took a beating."  
"I'm fine." Grace answered.  
"If you're fine after I fell on top of you, you must be pretty tough." Lyra's mouth twisted into a grin.  
"You fell on her?" Julia asked, eyebrows raised.  
Lyra shrugged. "Well, she pulled me into a ditch, and I ended up on top of her, so yeah."  
"I'm fine, really." Grace protested. Julia reached over and poked her side, and Grace winced involuntarily. Julia nodded in satisfaction as she handed Grace a small jar.  
"You know the drill. Now go get a bath. We'll have some lunch here for you when you're done."  
With a small sigh Grace did as she was told. Her entire left side was beginning to bruise, as well as the places where the stranger morph had hit her. Breathing a sigh of relief that Julia hadn't insisted on seeing the bruises, Grace spread the foul-smelling wonder-gunk on them before getting dressed and heading back. There were two trays, one completely empty and another with a full plate on it. Marie, Julia, and Lyra stopped talking when she came in.  
"How bad is it?" Marie asked as Grace began eating.  
"I've had worse." Grace answered through a mouthful of potato salad.  
"I know that. Don't talk with your mouth full. Seriously, how bad is it?"  
Grace swallowed. "Not too bad."  
"Grace, I know where at least one bruise is, and if you don't get a little more specific I am going to punch that bruise as hard as I can. Don't think I won't either."  
Grace held up her hands in defense. "Alright, alright. It's basically my left side, plus a few on my arms and legs."  
Marie smiled in a satisfied manner. "That wasn't so hard, now was it?"  
Grace rolled her eyes and continued eating.  
"Who was that morph, the one that looked like Grace?" Marie asked Lyra.  
"I don't know. I'd never seen him before, and he never said anything. He just joined up with the group. I heard something about stopping morphs from escaping."  
"His mission was to capture Grace and bring her back alive. I'm not sure why, though."  
Grace thought she knew. It had something to do with her plethora of different DNA, especially Mew's. Since she had shown herself that first time, they knew the general area where she was likely to appear. As long as they didn't find out anything else...  
"Grace, you're taking the rest of the day off." Julia said, "Marie, Lyra, would you please make sure she doesn't overexert herself?"  
"You think it'll take two of us?" Lyra asked.  
"I'd be surprised if it only takes two." Marie answered with a grin. Grace opened her mouth to protest and shut it again as Julia gave her a no-nonsense glare. After finishing up her lunch, Grace was escorted to the lounge. She was quiet, thinking about the stranger. He was a morph, there was no doubt about that. He probably had her same general DNA structure as well. What bugged Grace was that he seemed to want to follow his orders. From her experiences, there was not a single morph who had ever been in the compound that hadn't wanted to escape. The treatment was brutal. So she had to assume that the stranger either wasn't in the compound, or was kept separate. Whichever one it was, he hadn't been treated the same as the rest of the morphs. Why? Was it to ensure his loyalty? If so, then why didn't they treat all the other morphs like that? Of course, the other morphs had some memory of a life before and probably wouldn't want to stick around anyway. Maybe he was like her, with no memory of anything previous. That would explain why he had paused when she had asked him what his name was. He had no name, at least not then. Maybe he would have one when they met again. Grace had a feeling that there would be more encounters with the stranger if she continued to help other morphs escape, and she had no intention of stopping.  
"Grace? Earth to Grace!"  
"What?" Grace mentally shook herself free of her thoughts.  
"What were you thinking about?" Marie asked. Grace thought she caught a hint of worry in her eyes.  
"Just trying to figure out the morph who attacked me. I don't think they treated him the same as everyone else."  
"I never saw him in the compound." Lyra said, "I doubt anyone else did, either. They might have kept him inside or in a different part of the island."  
"I should talk to Miles." Grace started to get up, but Lyra gently pushed her back down and held her there.  
"You're not doing anything today. Just try to relax."  
Grace struggled to get up. "I'm fine, really."  
Lyra gave her a stern look, almost as intimidating as Julia's. "Grace, I am not afraid to sit on you if I have to. You've done more than enough today."  
Grace sighed in defeat and ceased to struggle. Marie could tell she was anxious to do just about anything other than sit around.  
"Grace, if you try doing too much you'll wear yourself out. I know you're stronger than the rest of us, but even you need rest sometimes. After all," she grinned a little, "you had about the equivalent of a full refrigerator fall on top of you today. I think your body needs a little time to recuperate."  
Grace smiled a little. "I guess you're right."  
"Good. Now let's try to figure out a way to beat that morph."  
They spent the rest of the afternoon going over every detail of the fight. Marie seemed to be particularly interested in the conversation, quietly analyzing it to find every possible meaning. After dinner there was another telling. Grace only half listened to Lyra. She was thinking about the morph. When they met again, she would have some questions to ask him.

* * *

And enter one of my more favorite characters. You'll later. Review please!


	9. My Name is Jeff

The next morning Grace got up earlier than usual, hoping to avoid Julia. She really didn't like spending time doing nothing if she could help it. Grace checked her bruises. They were an interesting shade of purplish-black with a little green at the edges and were very tender. It hurt to move, but Grace shrugged off the pain. At least nothing was broken. After breakfast she went outside to work in the garden. She always did her best thinking then. Those bruises were going to be a slight problem if another morph was spotted any time soon. Marie probably wouldn't let her go out. Speaking of Marie, she seemed to be getting a little more worried than usual. Maybe Julia was rubbing off onto her. Grace had a feeling, though, that it involved her and the risks she was taking to help morphs escape. She couldn't understand why Marie was so worried. She had been in more danger of losing her life in the compound. At least here she wasn't getting beaten every day.  
Marie found her at lunch. "Miles wants to look at the video of the fight and see if there's any way we could get an advantage."  
Grace nodded. It might be helpful to see the fight again. After lunch they went to Miles' lab. He looked quite pleased with himself.  
"Pidgey-cam two was able to record the entire fight, so we have multiple angles to look at." He pulled up the two videos and played them at the same time. Grace quickly picked up small details about the way the morph fought. It wasn't a whole lot, but anything would help in the next encounter. They spent the entire afternoon watching and re-watching the fight. By dinner they had every second analyzed.  
"I think you stand a pretty good chance next time." Miles said.  
Luckily for Grace, her bruises were mostly gone by the time another morph was spotted. She was sure she saw worry in Marie's eyes as she headed out. As Grace crouched in the undergrowth watching the Rocket group go by, Marie said, "He's behind you, just watching so far."  
Grace waited until the group was past. Slowly and deliberately, she turned and faced the morph.  
"Jeff."  
"What?" Grace blinked, but showed no other form of surprise.  
"My name is Jeff."  
"That's good to know." Marie said. The corner of Grace's mouth twitched upwards. Then Jeff attacked, and she focused on obtaining the least amount of bruises possible. They were evenly matched, and the fight went on for several minutes.  
"I should be able to defeat you." Jeff grunted.  
"Why's that?"  
"They said they created me stronger than they created you."  
Grace dodged a kick. So he was created like her. "They never beat you, do they?"  
"Of course not." Jeff sidestepped a punch, "They don't beat anyone."  
"They told you that?"  
"Yeah."  
"Then they lied to you."  
Jeff paused, and Grace's fist knocked him out. After making sure she had nothing more than bruises, Grace took off after the group, which was now far ahead of her.  
"Are you all right?" Marie asked.  
"I'm fine. Just a few bruises is all."  
"How many are we talking about?"  
"Didn't take the time to count them. Is the group close?"  
"Just up ahead. There's a large pond with lots of reeds just ahead of them, if you think you can use that."  
"I think I might." Grace put on an extra burst of speed. The pond was large and the reeds were closely packed and quite tall. She took off her shoes and socks, placed them on the bank, and waded into the water. Crouching amid the reeds and praying that the mike and camera were waterproof, Grace waited. The group was not long in coming. One of the grunts pointed at the shoes.  
"Looks like someone's here. Search the reeds."  
The group started looking. Grace watched the morph, a Machop-morph named Clarence, as he waded into the rushes near her. He spotted her.  
"What are you..."  
Grace clamped a hand over his mouth. "Don't make any noise." she whispered in his ear, "I'm here to help you escape. Get down slowly and don't move."  
She released him, and he did as she said. Together they hid, almost totally submerged. After a while the Rockets grew tired of poking about the reeds.  
"Some stupid kid must have left them." a grunt said as he picked up the shoes and threw them into the pond. Grace mentally cursed him as they left. When Marie gave her the all clear she stood up and headed out to where she had last seen her shoes. By some miracle they had landed in the reeds on the far side of the pond, and Grace had no trouble finding them.  
"We can go now." She said as she went back to Clarence. He stood up and shook off the water.  
"Where are we going?"  
Grace gave him a very brief description as they went. She tied her shoelaces together and hung them around her neck, opting to go barefoot instead. Several times she stopped to obliterate their tracks, just in case Jeff decided to go after her again. By the time they got there they were both reasonably dry. When they reached the exam room Julia gave Grace a jar of her wonder-gunk and her you've-done-enough-now-go-get-a-bath stare. With a little sigh Grace obliged. For Marie's sake she counted her bruises before putting the odoriferous cream on them and returning to the exam room.  
"How many?" Marie asked as Grace came in.  
"About seven, all fist sized, but none of them are really bad."  
"What counts as bad?" Julia asked, almost sounding amused.  
"When I have no skin left on my back."  
Marie sighed. "Grace, one of these days..." she sighed again and left the room. Grace raised an eyebrow and looked at Julia, who shrugged. Clarence, occupied with finishing off the remainder of his meal, had missed it entirely.


	10. Wounds, New and Old

Once again Grace, Marie, and Miles analyzed the fight with Jeff. Grace caught several new things and stored them away in her memory. A week passed, and she noticed that Marie seemed concerned and frustrated about something. When she asked about it, Marie would say it was nothing and walk off. Then another group was spotted. Miles had increased the quality of the Pidgey-cams and they were able to identify the morph as a Raichu-morph named Martin. This time Grace could definitely tell that Marie was worried. She quietly hid in the undergrowth as the group marched past.  
"Jeff's behind you. Try to cut down on the number of bruises."  
Slowly and deliberately, Grace turned to face Jeff, whose face was as emotionless as ever.  
"You lied. They don't beat anyone."  
"You asked?"  
Jeff nodded as he launched himself at her. Grace dodged him, and they began fighting.  
"Have you ever considered the possibility that they lied to you about that?"  
"They said they've never lied to me."  
Grace ducked under his fist and skillfully tripped him. "Have you ever thought that maybe they lied about lying to you?"  
Jeff jumped up, but Grace knocked him down again, then proceeded to knock him out.  
"How many bruises this time?" Marie asked as Grace went after the group.  
"Two or three, I think. Not near as many as last time."  
"Good."  
Once again Grace found a tree with several low leafy branches and hid in it. Martin was last in line, his short legs giving him a disadvantage. Grace swung down, grabbed him, and swung back up. He gave a little squeak before Grace could cover his mouth.  
"The morph's gone!"  
"I heard something back there!"  
"Spread out!"  
"He could be in that tree!"  
Rather than looking, one of the grunts pulled a gun from his shoulder and fired into the leaves of the tree. Grace let out a little gasp as a bullet tore through her shoulder. Martin likewise gasped as the bullet went through Grace and lodged in his arm.  
"What is it? What's going on?" Marie all but yelled. Grace looked at her shoulder and heard Marie gasp. "That's not good. You need to get back right now."  
"Can't. They're still shooting." Grace breathed into the mike as she bowed her head and squeezed her eyes shut to try to block out the pain. She could hear someone yelling something about it being against orders to shoot. A couple of seconds later Marie gave her the all-clear, and Grace climbed down.  
"Can you run?" she asked Martin.  
"Of course. It's my arm that's hurt, not my leg."  
They took off. After a while Martin started lagging, so after a long argument Grace convinced him to get on her back. They made it back without incidence, and Grace led Martin to the exam room. Julia had everything already laid out.  
"Miles said you got shot." she explained as she pulled on latex gloves, "Which one of you has the bullet?"  
Grace pointed to Martin and sat down as Julia expertly pulled it out and stitched up his wound. As Julia was finishing up her's Miles came in with a tray.  
"Bart says your timing's horrible today, but he'll forgive you this once." he said as he set the tray down in front of Martin, who promptly began devouring it.  
"Where's Marie?"  
Mile frowned. "In the computer room. She refuses to come out."  
"Do you know what's wrong?"  
"No, but I have a feeling it has something to do with you getting hurt."  
Grace frowned. What was going on with Marie? "I'd better talk with her."  
Julia nodded and stuck her head out the door.  
"Hi, Seth. Are you doing anything?"  
"Nope." Seth stopped outside the room.  
"Would you mind giving Martin the grand tour when he's finished eating?"  
"Sure."  
Martin quickly finished the food and followed Seth. Grace sighed as she adjusted the sling around her neck. She knew what was going to happen when she talked to Marie and she wasn't looking forward to it, but putting it off wouldn't help any. She and Miles went to the lab. Marie was sitting with her back to them, her shoulders shaking as she cried quietly.  
"What's wrong?"  
Marie turned around and stood, her tear-stained face stormy. "What's wrong? You almost get yourself killed, and you're asking me what's wrong?"  
Miles opened his mouth to say something, but Grace gave him a tiny shake of her head. Marie needed to let it all out.  
"From the first time you went out, you've put yourself in danger. Every time I've been scared that you wouldn't make it back, that the one time you needed help it wouldn't be there. Ever since Jeff started appearing I've been afraid that there'd be one time where you were too slow, where you'd trip or something like that, and I'd never see you again. When you come back covered in bruises, I can't help but think about when we were in the compound and you'd come back bleeding and I didn't know if you'd even live through the night. Then I start thinking about Tori, and what would happen if you died. And now you go off and get yourself shot..."  
Marie sat down and began sobbing. Grace knelt in front of her and gently embraced her with her good arm while Marie cried into her shoulder. After a while Marie's sobs subsided.  
"Marie, I know it's hard. I know there's a chance that I won't come back. But this is something I have to do. How would you feel if you knew that there was someone out there that could help you but wouldn't because she was scared of getting hurt or killed? I can't let them down like that. Try to understand."  
Marie sniffed and sat up, wiping the tears from her eyes. "I know. It's just so hard when you're getting hurt and all I can do is watch. Could you at least just promise me that you won't get shot again?"  
"I promise I'll try."  
Marie sniffed again and gave her a little smile. "I guess I'll have to settle for that. Thanks."  
"It's the least I could have done."  
Marie left to get herself cleaned up, and Grace followed Miles out.  
"I've heard you mention Tori a couple of times. Who is he?"  
Grace looked at him in surprise. "Marie never talked about him?"  
"She said he was a close friend, but she wouldn't say any more."  
Grace sighed and looked away, sadness tinging her voice. "Tori was a Gallade-morph, and the only other one that was ever in our hut. We were all pretty close, but Marie was much, much closer to him than I was. One time they pitted me against him and Marie in a fight to the death. Tori refused to fight me point blank, then attacked one of the guards. They...they beat him to death. Marie's never really gotten over it."  
Miles put a hand on her shoulder. "Thanks. That's all I needed to know."  
Grace left, and Miles went to find Seth. Seth was introducing Martin to some other morphs, but came over when Miles caught his eye.  
"Could I talk to you for a minute?"  
"Sure."  
"What do you know about Tori?"  
Seth looked sad, but nowhere near as sad as Grace had been. "He was in the same hut as Grace and Marie. They were all pretty close, but Marie was closer to him than Grace. Everyone liked him. No matter how hard they beat him, he'd still find something to joke about, and he was more loyal than anyone thought possible. We were all sad when he got killed, but Marie and Grace took it the hardest. In fact, I think they're still taking it hard."  
"What do you mean?"  
"I know Marie's still grieving a little, and Grace blames herself for his death."  
"Why would she blame herself?"  
Seth sighed. "She still believes that she could have done something, even though there was nothing that she could have possibly done. Everyone's tried to convince her of that, and for the most part she's appeared to accept it, but deep down, she still thinks there must have been something."  
"Thank you. That helps me a lot."  
"Any time." Seth went back to the group.

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Happy early St. Patrick's Day, everyone! By the way, this is chapter ten and there still haven't been any reviews. Just thought I'd point that out. Have a fantastic day!


	11. Second Trip into Town

The next morning Grace was once again working in the garden. She had come out before dawn in hopes of avoiding anyone who would tell her to take the day off, namely Julia. The sun rose, revealing Marie standing a short distance away.  
"Julia's going to kill you if she finds you out here." she said softly.  
"I know." Grace replied as she continued to hoe with her one good arm. Marie came over and gently laid a hand on her arm, halting her work.  
"Grace, Julia's right on this. You really do need to rest."  
Grace sighed. "If Julia had her way I'd be doing nothing until my shoulder was fully healed. You know I'd go crazy by then."  
"I'm not talking about that long. Couldn't you just take the next couple of days to rest? You'll wear yourself out if you're not careful."  
Grace was about to protest when she caught the worried look in Marie's eyes. "I'll try today, but I'll make no guarantees about tomorrow."  
Marie smiled a little. "If you rest tomorrow too I'll try to convince Julia to let you go into town with me the next time I go."  
Because Grace had had some sort of injury or another most of the time, Julia had forbidden her to accompany Marie into town. Marie convincing Julia to let her go with a gun wound would be a miracle in and of itself. "All right."  
For the next two days Grace rested, meaning she didn't do any work outside or where Marie would find out. Marie was able to pull off her miracle and convinced Julia to let Grace go to town with her. Grace breathed a quiet sigh of relief as they drove off.  
"So how exactly did you manage to convince Julia to let me go?"  
"Oh, I told her that if you didn't come you'd be outside working in the garden and moving your shoulder around too much. Not that she had a hard time believing it."  
Grace grinned to herself as they drove on. When they got to Ivan's she got out and stretched. Being in a moving vehicle was almost as bad as doing nothing, but at least the scenery changed. Ivan smiled when he saw her.  
"Ah, Grace. It is a pleasure to see you again."  
"Likewise." Grace said quietly as they shook hands. Ivan looked at the goods, then proceeded to barter as they went back to the front of the van. Grace was quietly listening when Calvin came up beside her.  
"Hi, Grace. Long time no see." They shook, and Calvin gestured to her sling. "What happened?"  
"Tree."  
Calvin nodded. "I fell out of a tree once a few years ago and broke my arm. Lost my taste for climbing after that. Think Marie would get mad if you helped unload?"  
"Probably. Lead the way."  
Calvin chuckled quietly as he led her to the back of the van. The others greeted her cheerfully. The two that had been there the last time jokingly asked if she was going to move anything like she had the last time. Grace smiled, shook her head, and proceeded to help unload the van. When they were finished she went back to where she had been standing. Ivan and Marie were almost finished, but didn't notice her. Calvin came up and stood beside her.  
"I'm guessing you don't want Marie to find out?"  
"That would be preferable."  
Calvin winked. "Your secret's safe with me. Any reason you haven't come in so long?"  
"Julia wouldn't let her." Marie said as she came up, apparently done bartering. "She's usually covered in bruises from one thing or another."  
Calvin raised an eyebrow. "Dare I ask?"  
"No." Grace said. Calvin shrugged.  
"Alight, I guess you're entitled to your secrets. It was nice seeing you."  
He left, and Ivan came up with the usual envelope and parting words. They got in the van and went to do the shopping.  
"I think he likes you." Marie said suddenly.  
"What?"  
"Calvin. I think he likes you."  
"Why do you say that?" Grace asked, confused.  
"Didn't you hear how he asked why you hadn't been coming? Judging from that and the way he acted last time, I think he likes you."  
Grace shrugged, uncomfortable. She already had a hard time dealing with other people. How was she going to deal with someone who liked her? Stop coming into town and hope he forgot about her? Not likely, after the table incident. There wasn't much she could do about it right now, so she decided not to worry about it.

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Still no reviews. ;-; Oh well. Feel free to change that.


	12. Some New Help

First off, I'd like to thank ChelseaSienaJosephineCassand ra and ZSFG for reviewing. You guys completely made my week. Thanks again!

Second: this is about the half-way mark, believe it or not. Just thought I'd throw that out there. Enjoy!

* * *

After what seemed like forever Julia pronounced Grace's shoulder fully healed and allowed her to go back to work. Grace breathed a quiet sigh of relief as she went out to work in the garden. Trying to work without Julia finding out could get a little tiring at times. A few days later she was once again summoned to the lab. A group had been sighted.  
"I have another couple of things for you to test." Miles said when she came in. He held up two black spheres, each about the size of a golf ball. "These are smoke bombs. You throw them at the ground and they release extremely dense smoke. It's harmless, so you don't have to worry about you or the other morph suffocating, and once they're done smoking there's nothing left." He then held up what looked to be a pair of reading glasses with thick lenses. "These let you see infrared, or heat. I'm sure they'll be very helpful in the smoke."  
Grace took the smoke bombs and put them in her pocket, then accepted the glasses and put them on. There was a tiny button on one side, and she pressed it. Swirling colors came up, showing what must have been different temperatures. She turned them back off and put them in her other pocket.  
"Thanks. These will make it a lot easier."  
Once again Grace headed north. She picked a spot a little ways ahead of where the group would pass and concealed herself. She had no sooner done so when there was a tiny burst of static over the mike, then silence.  
"Marie, are you there?"  
There was no answer.  
"Marie? Miles? Anyone?"  
Still no answer.  
"Shoot."  
o0o  
Clarence was walking down the hall, frowning. Where was everyone? The place seemed deserted, at least on the inside. Something was going on, and he didn't have a clue what. As he passed by the lab, he heard something.  
"Can anyone hear me?"  
Curious, he looked inside. It was empty.  
"Will someone please answer me?"  
The voice seemed to be coming from a headset on the desk. A little hesitantly, Clarence went in, picked up the headset, and put it on.  
"Hello?" he said nervously.  
There was a moment of silence. "Who is this?"  
"Um, this is Clarence."  
"Hi Clarence. This is Grace. Where's Marie and Miles?"  
"No clue. I can't find anyone."  
There was a sigh on the other end. "This isn't good. Are you doing anything?"  
"No."  
"Then could you help me?"  
"Sure."  
"Great. There should be two screens in front of you that show forest. Can you see them?"  
"Yep."  
"OK. One should show a hand. That's my front. The other one is my back. I need you to watch that one and tell me when you see someone in it. After that, tell me the second he looks like he's going to move. Got it?"  
"Got it."  
There was about a minute of silence.  
"There's someone behind you. He has short hair and he's wearing a Rocket uniform, but other than that he looks pretty much like you." There was a two second pause. "He's tensing up."  
o0o  
Grace said a quiet prayer of thanks when she heard a voice on the other end. After telling Clarence what to do she was absolutely motionless, her senses fully alert. She sensed someone behind her half a second before Clarence said it.  
"He's tensing up."  
Grace rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding a fist. She kicked upwards and was rewarded by the jarring sensation of her foot hitting Jeff's arm. This gave her enough time to get on her feet. They exchanged blows for a little bit. Clarence actually helped Grace by alerting her to what Jeff was probably going to do next.  
"It's been a while." Jeff grunted as Grace's fist collided soundly with his shoulder.  
"Did you miss me?"  
Jeff paused, and Grace knocked him out.  
"Nice." Clarence said.  
Grace smiled a little as she ran ahead of the group and climbed a tree. Soon after they went under her. The morph, a Luxray-morph she didn't recognize, was in the center of the group. Hoping that Miles was right about his smoke bombs, Grace took one out of her pocket and threw it down. Smoke billowed out, quickly enshrouding everything. At least she wouldn't have to worry about being seen. She took out the infrared glasses, put them on, and pressed the button. The colors came up, showing her where everyone was. One seemed to have a slightly lower body temperature and shape, which she assumed was the morph. Silently she climbed down, landing next to the morph.  
"Follow me." she breathed into the morph's ear as she took hold of her arm. The morph complied and they made it out of the smoke without running into any Rocket grunts. Once clear, they took off. When they were a long distance away they slowed to a walk.  
"Are you Grace?" the morph asked softly.  
"Yes. What's your name?"  
"Jaylin. The other morphs talked about you a lot. There was a rumor that you were helping morphs escape."  
Grace smiled a little. "Looks like the rumor's true."  
"Marie and Miles are back. They said they'd be in the exam room." Clarence's voice came over the mike. Grace breathed a small sigh of relief.  
They made it back a little after noon. Sure enough, Marie and Miles were in the exam room, along with Julia, Clarence, and two plates of food. After the usual introductions Jaylin set to work on the food while Julia examined her back.  
"Where were you?" Grace asked between bites.  
"Tom's shop caught fire." Miles explained, "It happened fast and they needed everyone to put it out. Sorry for not telling you."  
Grace shrugged. "It's OK. Was anyone hurt?"  
"No. We got it under control quickly. The only damage is the roof and a few pieces of furniture."  
Grace finished her meal and was quiet for a moment, trying to come up with the best way of voicing her thoughts. "Marie, would you have any problems with letting Clarence taking over occasionally? That way you wouldn't have to watch me get beaten to a bloody pulp all the time."  
Marie was silent a moment. "All right." she smiled a little, "Maybe it'll stop me from getting so worried. Or make me even more so. We'll have to see."  
"Are you fine with that?" Grace asked Clarence. He shrugged.  
"Sure. I'd be glad to help."  
After giving Jaylin the grand tour Grace, Marie, and Miles went to the lab to analyze the fight. Like the last few times, Grace caught small details about how Jeff fought. Marie, for some reason, seemed to be most interested in the two sentences that had been spoken.  
"I think he missed you." she said after watching it a couple of times.  
"Why do you say that?" Grace asked, surprised.  
"You noticed how he paused right after you asked if he missed you. I think he was realizing that he actually did."  
"Why on earth would he miss me? Every time we meet we try to beat the tar out of each other, remember?"  
Marie was silent a moment. "Well, it's probably different from his training schedule. And...you're different. You're not the grunts and whatnot that he usually interacts with. Have you noticed how every time you fight, you say something that makes him pause? He's not used to it. You probably make him think in a way he's not used to."  
Grace was silent, thinking. To tell the truth, she hadn't missed him at all. Of course, she didn't really like the bruises, or the fact that he tried to keep her from fulfilling her mission. Then again, she had better company here then he would have. If they kept Jeff separate from the other morphs, did he really have any company at all other than the grunts? Maybe Marie was right.


	13. Trap

For the next few weeks Marie and Clarence switched off being at the other end of the mike. This seemed to help Marie worry less, which Grace was grateful for. Miles had several new inventions that proved to be extremely useful, and her bruises were kept at a minimum. Then, Grace got called to the lab by a worried-looking Marie.  
"This group is moving differently." she said as they went inside, "Usually they go straight inland, but this group is veering north for some reason."  
Grace frowned. "Is there a morph in the group?"  
"It's hard to tell. We think so."  
They went into the lab, where Miles was frowning at the screens. "It looks like a morph in the middle there, but I can't tell. I haven't seen any sign of Jeff, either. That's what worries me. Usually we catch a glimpse of him at least."  
"Be careful." Marie whispered as Grace put on the mike and camera.  
"I'll be as careful as I can." Grace assured her as she left.  
The group was far north of where they usually went. Grace was in unfamiliar territory, and she proceeded with caution. She spotted the group just as they went into what looked like an abandoned factory or warehouse of some sort. Lying low, she waited for several minutes.  
"No sign of Jeff. He might be in that building." Marie's voice held a lot of worry.  
"Marie, do you want to let Clarence take this one?"  
"No, I'll be fine. I'm just a little worried."  
"Just a little?" A tiny smile appeared on Grace's face before promptly disappearing. Moving like a shadow, she slipped into the the building. The first floor was empty. The only way was down a narrow flight of stairs. Like a wraith, Grace ghosted down the steps, making no noise. At the bottom she stood in the shadows, looking into a large room with various pieces of machinery lining the walls. Several grunts were surrounding a figure that was shorter than all of them. Sort of like...  
"Grace, get out of there! It's a trap!"  
The lights went off, and Grace was roughly grabbed and dragged into the room by at least six people. Someone kicked her in the back of the knees, forcing her to kneel. Then the lights came back on. The grunts now surrounded her. Opposite her was Jeff, emotionless as ever.  
"Took long enough." a familiar voice said. A man stepped out of the shadows, swinging a whip in a carefree manner. Grace's face became as emotionless as Jeff's. She would not show fear or anger. She had almost killed him once, and she knew very well he'd use any excuse to pay her back.  
"Remember me?" he said, forcing her chin up with the whip's handle, "I've been waiting for this day for a long time. They've given me permission to punish you in any way I see fit, so long as I don't kill you. Believe me, I know exactly how far I can go." He raised his whip.  
"Oh, Grace." Marie whispered.  
Grace gasped as the whip sliced across her back. She had almost forgotten how much it hurt. Almost...but not quite. As the whip lashed across her back again and again she looked at Jeff. The message in her eyes was clear: I told you they beat people. Some emotion flashed across Jeff's face, but it was gone before Grace could identify it. By that time Grace could feel the blood begin to trickle down her back. She bowed her head, eyes closed, determined not to cry out no matter how much she was beaten. Blackness began to close in on her. They would beat her until she was unconscious, then they would take her back. And then what? No. She wouldn't go back. She'd rather die first. Heat seemed to course through her veins, expanding outward and pushing everyone back. She stood, breathing heavily.  
"Grace, what's going on?!"  
Grace didn't answer. A ball of energy formed in her hand. With a flick of her wrist she flung it not at a person, but at one of the machines. It exploded and flames blossomed. The Team Rocket members screamed and ran. All except Jeff. He was trapped under a large piece of red-hot metal, struggling valiantly but unable to escape. Grace felt the energy that had coursed through her earlier dissipate. She was tired and in pain, and all she wanted to do right then was leave.  
"I'm going to regret this." she muttered as she ran over to Jeff, who now seemed to be on the verge of unconsciousness. Gathering what remained of her strength, she heaved the debris off of him, picked him up, and ran out, feeling the intense wave of heat as the ceiling came crashing down behind her. She didn't stop running until she was well away from the building. Panting, Grace set Jeff down and sat, trying to regain her breath.  
"Grace, are you all right?" Marie sounded almost panicked.  
"No, Marie, I'm not all right. I think I can make it back, though. I just need a few minutes to recover."  
"How bad is it?"  
"Pretty bad. My back's torn up and my hands are burned. Not sure what else."  
"Come back as fast as you can, but don't push yourself too hard."  
Grace smiled a tiny bit. "Don't worry, I'll make it back one way or another. Just make sure Julia's ready."  
Jeff stirred, then opened his eyes. Groaning, he sat up and looked around. His eyes widened when he saw Grace sitting there, doing nothing but watching him.  
"Why?"  
Grace raised an eyebrow. "Why what?"  
"Why did you save me?"  
"Everyone deserves a chance to live." With that, Grace stood up and walked away, determined not to show Jeff how weak she was. It took her a long time to get back. Marie was standing outside, still wearing the headset. She stared at Grace with wide eyes before helping her inside. Grace had to smile. She must look like a mess. Julia had the same reaction, but recovered quickly. Pointing to the stool, she pulled on latex gloves and began to find out the extent of the damage. Her frown deepened as she looked at Grace's back. It looked like there was no skin left. Grace's hands and arms were burned and cut, as well as parts of her face and legs.  
"How on earth are you alive?" Julia muttered as she pulled out a couple jars of her wonder-gunk and began applying it to the burns.  
"We've been trying to figure that out for a long time." Marie said quietly as she helped Julia with the wonder-gunk.  
Grace watched tiredly as Julia and Marie bandaged up the burns and wounds. She herself had no clue as to how she was alive. By all rights she should have been dead, if not from the beating then from the explosion. When they were finished Marie and Julia helped Grace to her bed.  
"I'll be right here if you need anything." Marie said as she sat down on her own bed. Grace nodded once, then closed her eyes and fell asleep.  
Grace was bedridden for four days. It would have only been two, but both Julia and Marie insisted, rather forcefully, that she stay in bed. Grace, obviously not in the best condition to argue, accepted it with little complaint. All the morphs were concerned, especially those Grace had rescued, and visited her at least once, even Tom. Marie left her side only to bring food, and half the time Bart personally delivered it.  
Finally, Grace was permitted to go to the lounge. After managing to get up, she found it was almost all she could do just to get there. No working for her for a while. Marie would be happy. As they sat on one of the couches, Grace watched Marie's face. She seemed to be thinking about something, and Grace had a pretty good guess as to what.  
"What are you thinking about?"  
Marie blinked a couple of times, then shook her head. "Why did you save Jeff? He's been after you for so long, and he'll be after you again as soon as he can."  
"To tell the truth, I'm not really sure." Grace admitted, "I think...I think he's finally beginning to understand. They lied to him. They really do beat people. There's something out there besides what he's been living that might be better."  
"You told him that everyone deserves a chance to live."  
"Everyone does."  
Marie frowned a little. "You could have died."  
"I could have died a lot of times. But I didn't."  
"But what if you had? Then both of you would have been dead."  
"It was worth the risk. Knowing I died trying to save a life is better than having to live wondering if I could have saved him."  
"Like Tori?"  
Grace blinked in surprise. "What?"  
"I know how you still think you could have saved him, and I've been wondering if that's one of the reasons you keep risking your life to help morphs escape. You're trying to make up for it, even though you know very well there's nothing you could have done."  
Grace was silent. She hadn't realized it until now, but Marie had hit it right on the head. Deep, deep down, so deep she hadn't even realized it, that was what it was all about. Since she couldn't make it up to Tori directly, she was making it up through other morphs. At least, that's how it had started out. Now...now she didn't know. Why had she saved Jeff? She didn't know that, either.  
"Grace, could you promise me something?"  
"What?"  
"Promise me...promise me you won't die a pointless death like Tori did."  
Grace smiled gently. "I promise."

* * *

FYI, I do have a poll up about whether or not anyone's interested in fun facts about my stories. If I get any votes for it by this time next week I'll start coming up with facts about this story. Vote if you're interested!


	14. Jeff's Plea

It was a week before Grace was allowed outside, and even then she wasn't allowed near the garden. The other morphs were well aware of how severe her injuries had been and made it clear that they'd tell Julia if they caught her working. Grace resorted to walking outside, where she could feel the sun and hear the wind in the trees. Those were some of the things she had missed most while she had been confined to bed. Often Marie would hunt her down and make her sit down for a while, muttering with a smile that if Grace moved around any more she'd have to get Lyra to sit on her. About two weeks later Miles found them. He looked extremely worried.  
"We have a problem," he said.  
Wordlessly they followed him to his lab. One of the screens showed a lone figure walking through the forest. Jeff. He didn't seem to be in a hurry. Grace knew immediately where he was heading. He had felt the pull and was following it.  
"I'm going out there."  
"Grace, you're still..."  
Grace held up a hand, stopping Marie's protest. "I know. But if I don't, he'll end up right here. We can't risk it."  
"But you can't even fight."  
"Maybe I won't have to."  
"Let me go."  
Grace shook her head. "He's not after you. He's after me, and I doubt he'll stop until he finds me."  
"So you're just going to make it easy for him."  
"I can't let him find this place. It would be endangering everyone."  
"Then I'm going with you."  
Grace was about to protest when she saw Marie's stubborn expression that stated that all argument was hopeless. "Fine. But don't reveal yourself until you absolutely have to."  
"Actually, this might not be so bad," Miles said, "I have another mike and camera I'd like to test out. It won't match your hair, but if you're not likely to show yourself then it won't matter. I'll get Clarence in here, too."  
Within a short amount of time Miles had put all the mikes on one line and sent Grace and Marie out. After a while they separated. Marie went into the trees, making sure she could see but would not easily be seen.  
"You're right in line with him," Miles' voice came over the mike, "He'll be there in a minute or two."  
"Be careful," Marie said quietly.  
Grace positioned herself behind a tree and waited, fervently hoping that it wouldn't come to a fight.  
"He's close to your tree," Clarence said.  
Taking a deep breath, Grace stepped out from behind the tree. Jeff, several feet away, stopped.  
"Looking for something?" she asked, hoping to distract his attention from her bandaged hands and arms.  
"Yes. You, actually."  
"Same reason as all the other times?"  
Jeff shook his head. "I just wanted to ask you something."  
"Be ready," Marie whispered.  
"What?" Grace asked, tensing imperceptibly.  
Jeff was silent a moment, as if struggling for the best way to ask his question. "What...how come..." he sighed. "Why do you do what you do? Even after you knew I was after you, you still helped others escape. Even though you knew you would probably die doing it, you rescued me. Why?"  
For the first time, there was an emotion clearly written on his face: confusion. Grace silently evaluated him. He wasn't lying, and he wasn't trying to lure her into a trap. Somehow, she could sense it. He was truly confused about her. "There are a lot of reasons. You've never been through what we've been through, so you can't really understand. No one deserves to be treated like that."  
"But why did you save me? You knew I'd probably go after you again."  
"Do you want the honest truth?"  
Jeff nodded, and Grace took a deep breath.  
"I really don't know. Maybe it was because of..." she shook her head. She really didn't feel like discussing Tori with Jeff. "I don't know."  
Jeff looked at the ground. "You were right," he said softly, "They lied. They lied about so many things. And I...I was stupid enough to believe them." He looked up, his eyes staring desperately into hers. "After you saved me, they beat me. They said I had the perfect opportunity, but I didn't take it, so they would have to resort to the old methods. That evening, I sneaked out. I had to know. I saw what they did to all the other morphs. It...it was horrible. So much pain, so much hunger. And I didn't realize it until then. I can't be a pawn anymore. Please...please help."  
His voice was desperate, as was his face. Jeff stared at her pleadingly.  
"I don't trust him," Marie said vehemently. "For all we know it could be some plan to discover where we're hiding."  
"His body language doesn't show any sign of deceit," Clarence piped up.  
"It's your call, Grace," Miles said.  
Silently, Grace watched Jeff. He continued to stare at her, and she could see a hint of fear beginning to surface in his eyes. Fear that he'd fail to find where they were living? No, that wasn't it. She didn't know how she knew, but she knew it was something different. Fear that she'd turn him down, that he'd have to go back.  
"All right, but I'm warning you now. If you do anything that looks even remotely suspicious, I will kill you with no hesitation. Got it?"  
Jeff nodded, relief showing in his face. Grace began walking back, and he followed.  
"Are you sure about this?" Marie hissed.  
"No, I'm not," Grace breathed into the mike, "But this is one chance we're just going to have to take."  
"And if it goes wrong?"  
"Then the only reason I won't kill him is if you get to him first."  
Clarence chuckled quietly. "I'd almost take Grace over Marie."  
Slowing her pace a little, Grace allowed Jeff to draw even with her. "Are you alone?" she asked.  
Jeff nodded. "Yes."  
"How did you manage that?"  
"I told them I had a way to capture you, but I had to do it alone."  
"Won't they try to find you when you don't come back?"  
Jeff shook his head. "I laid a dozen false trails. By the time they try all of them they'll give up."  
"Are you sure about that?"  
"Positive."  
"Is there any way they can track you?"  
"No. Anything that could even remotely resemble a tracking device I left behind."  
They continued in silence for several minutes. Grace watched Jeff out of the corner of her eye. He seemed a little tense, but less than she was. His eyes moved around constantly, often coming to rest on her for a moment or two before quickly looking away.  
"Is there someone else close by?" Jeff asked suddenly. Grace hid her surprise.  
"Why do you ask that?"  
Jeff seemed to struggle for the answer. "Well, I can't hear them, really...it's more like I can...feel them...sense them, kind of."  
Grace nodded in understanding. So he had that happen, too. "It's my guardian angel."  
"Your guardian angel?" Jeff looked puzzled. Grace couldn't help but grin a little.  
"Yep. And if you try to do anything to me she'll kill you."  
Jeff's eyes grew wide. "Really?"  
"If she's in a good mood. If not, well, you don't even want to think about it."  
"And right now I don't think I'm in that good of a mood," Marie said. Clarence snickered a little.  
They went the rest of the way in silence. Jeff's eyebrows rose when he saw all the other morphs going about their usual work.  
"This is where all the escaped morphs come?"  
"Pretty much."  
Marie stepped out of the trees and came up beside Grace, arms folded and looking at Jeff skeptically. Jeff saw her and blinked, apparently unused to someone staring at him like that.  
"Is this your guardian angel?"  
"Yep. This is Marie."  
Marie glared at Jeff for a second longer before saying, "Just remember, one wrong move, and..." she drew a finger across her throat before heading inside. Jeff blinked a few times.  
"I have the feeling she doesn't like me."  
"She doesn't," Grace assured him as she led him inside.  
"Julia wants to see him. The usual," Miles said over the mike. Grace, anticipating this, headed towards the exam room with Jeff in tow.  
"Why doesn't she like me?" Jeff asked, "She doesn't even know me."  
"She knows you're the reason I kept coming back with bruises, and that you were trying to capture me."  
"And she hates me because of that?"  
Grace glanced at Jeff. Now that they weren't trying to beat the snot out of each other, his face was an open book. His confusion was obvious.  
"Yep. One day you might understand."  
Jeff glanced around, taking in the fact that every other morph they passed stared at him with an expression similar to that which they might use had he had two heads. "Why does everyone keep looking at me like that?"  
A ghost of a smile appeared on Grace's face. "Well, for one thing, you look almost exactly like me," the smile disappeared, "And another, pretty much everyone knows that you were trying to capture me. Some of them find that rather offensive."  
"Why?"  
Grace stopped and looked Jeff in the eye. "Because if you had succeeded they would be back in the compound, half starved and getting beaten every day." She saw the fact register itself in Jeff's mind.  
"Oh. Right."  
They continued. Grace ushered him into the exam room, where Julia, Miles, and Marie were waiting. While Julia made the usual introductions Grace went to stand by Marie.  
"Maybe we should have Julia make sure you're OK," Marie said in a low voice that Jeff couldn't hear.  
"There's no need. All I did was walk. No fighting, no running, nothing that would cause me further injury."  
"Still..."  
Grace grinned. "Why Marie, if I didn't know any better I'd say you were fussing over me just to fuss over me. Don't worry, Julia will probably want to check me over anyway."  
Marie returned her grin. "Probably."  
They turned back just in time to see Miles swab the inside of Jeff's cheek and head off towards his lab. When the door had closed Julia said, "Alright, take off your shirt."  
"What?" A look of alarm crossed Jeff's face.  
"It's all right," Grace said, "Julia's a doctor. She just wants to see how bad they beat you."  
With a glace at Marie Jeff did as he was told. Grace noticed that his chest and stomach were covered in a faint scar, most likely from the red-hot metal that he had gotten pinned under over three weeks ago. She walked around to look at his back. There were some half-healed cuts as well as some newer ones, though nowhere near as bad as any of the other morphs' had been.  
"I've seen worse," Marie said dismissively.  
"How much worse?" Jeff asked.  
"That's on a need-to-know basis, and you don't need to know," she answered curtly.  
Julia silently motioned to the brand on his right shoulder. LMO-2. Grace nodded once. She had been expecting it. Marie must have been expecting it as well, because she didn't seem surprised in the least.  
"You can put your shirt back on," Julia said, finishing whatever she was writing on her clipboard, "Go with Marie to find some clothes, then get a bath and get someone to put this on your cuts." She handed him a small jar of her wonder-gunk. "Grace, I'd like to see how your burns are doing."  
A little warily, Jeff followed Marie to a room filled with clothes. After giving him a head-to-toe look Marie disappeared for a minute, coming back with a green t-shirt, black jeans, and black socks. She handed them to him before leading him to the shoe room, where she found some red and black sneakers that looked like they would fit him. Clothing obtained, Marie led him to the bathroom, told him to be quick, and left. Wondering if she'd be waiting outside to make sure he didn't try anything, Jeff filled the tub, undressed, and quickly scrubbed himself before putting on his new clothes. They fit well; whatever else Marie was, she was a good judge of size. Then he looked in the mirror.  
Grace was right. They did look almost identical. He'd known that since he'd first gotten his mission, but he'd never really looked at his reflection before. Red eyes, short black hair, tanned skin, nothing too remarkable. With a little shake of his head Jeff grabbed the jar Julia had given him and opened the door. To his surprise Marie was nowhere in sight. The hallway was empty. Not really sure what else to do, Jeff headed to the exam room, hoping Grace would be there. He didn't really know anyone else other than Marie, and she obviously didn't like him.  
The door to the exam room was slightly ajar. A little hesitantly, Jeff peered inside. Grace was sitting on the stool, back to him. Julia was unwinding bandages. The blood drained from Jeff's face as he saw what was under them. Grace's back looked like one massive scab.  
"It's looking better," Julia said.  
"So it doesn't look like raw hamburger anymore?" Grace asked, sounding almost...amused.  
"Nope. Now it just looks like you got skinned."  
Jeff sank to the floor beside the door. He had thought his back was bad. His wounds were mere paper cuts compared to Grace's. That must have been what Marie meant when she said she'd seen worse. Guilt welled up inside him. He was the reason. He was why Grace's back looked like someone had ripped the skin off.  
"What are you doing?"  
Marie was standing over him, hands on hips and glaring at him. Jeff blinked a couple of times. He hadn't even realized she was there.  
"Waiting for Grace," he finally said, holding up the jar slightly. Marie stared him down for a moment, then sighed and took the jar.  
"Stand up and turn around."  
Not really sure if he wanted to turn his back to her, Jeff did as he was told. "I thought you hated me," he said before he could stop himself.  
"I do," Marie replied as she pulled up the back of his shirt and began applying the smelly medicine to his wounds, "But Grace is busy right now, and I've had more experience doing this anyway." She finished and stepped back.  
"Thank you," Jeff said, turning around. Marie scrutinized him for a short while, noticing the traces of shock and guilt in his eyes.  
"You've seen Grace's back, haven't you?" she asked quietly.  
Jeff looked startled, then nodded. There was no use denying it.  
"It was never that bad in the compound," Marie said, still quiet, "but some days it almost looked like that. Every night she'd come back from training bleeding, half the skin on her back gone. We still don't know how she's still alive. She should have died after her first day. When she finally came here, I hoped that I wouldn't ever have to see her back like that again. And then this happened..."  
She fell silent. Jeff stared at her, but didn't really see her. Grace should have died after her first day? They beat her nearly that bad in the compound? He knew the treatment was brutal, but that was ridiculous. Had he not seen them actually beat her, he might not have believed it.  
"Hi," Grace said as she opened the door and stepped into the hallway, "Waiting on me?"  
"Lyra wanted me to ask you if you've gone insane," Marie said, with a glace at Jeff, "Some others wanted me to ask you that, too."  
"What did you say?"  
"I told them that you probably had, but not to worry." Marie looked at Grace's arms and gasped. "You got your bandages off! That's wonderful!"  
"Yep." Grace held up her hands and wiggled her now bandage-free fingers. Jeff noticed, with a pang of guilt, that that her hands and arms bore pale scars from when she had heaved the hot metal off of him. He doubted that Julia had access to the advanced equipment and medicine Team Rocket had, which had healed his severe burns in a matter of days.  
"Oh, everyone wants to know if there's going to be a telling tonight," Marie was saying.  
"Might as well," Grace replied, "I don't see a reason to break tradition."  
Marie nodded and left. Jeff looked at Grace, confused. "What's a telling?" he asked.  
"It's when the newest morph explains how they escaped," Grace explained, "Since so many have seen you already, they're expecting it."  
"You mean I have to get up in front of everyone?"  
"Yep. Since everyone knows how you were after me, though, you might want to explain everything. Tellings are usually held after dinner, so you have a little time to think about what you want to say. Come on, I'll show you around."  
Jeff followed Grace on what she called the grand tour, noticing the looks many gave him in the process. By the time Grace finished showing him around, it was dinnertime. Jeff, Grace noticed with amusement, took a little bit of everything, like any other new morph. They sat down at the end of one of the tables, and Jeff promptly began sampling the different foods.  
"Did they feed you mush?" Grace asked with a hint of amusement.  
Jeff nodded and swallowed. "Yes."  
"I guess some things never change."

* * *

Sorry about skipping last week. I had internet troubles. Anyway, for the interesting fact,** Yoshtar** brought up the question of if a pokeball would work on a morph. Honestly, I'm not entirely sure, but assuming that humans can't be caught in a pokeball there's two possibilities. One, a morph couldn't be caught. Two, the pokeball would try to capture the Pokemon part, causing at least pain and potentially ripping them apart at the cellular level. So never throw a master ball at a morph.

Cheers!


	15. Jeff's Explination

After dinner they went to the lounge and waited while the other morphs trickled in. As the room filled up Jeff began fidgeting. "There's so many."  
"The population has increased significantly since I got here," Grace replied in an off-hand manner. Jeff gave her a curious glance before continuing to fidget. Finally all the morphs were there, as well as Miles and Julia. Grace stood and introduced Jeff before motioning for him to take the floor. After a bit of hesitation he stood, still fidgeting.  
"I guess I should start at the beginning." he said, looking around the room and noting the variety of looks he was receiving. "From the start I was treated differently, though I didn't know it. They treated me like a regular grunt, sometimes better. I didn't see any reason to disbelieve anything they told me. When they told me other morphs were escaping I couldn't figure out why. I hadn't even seen another morph before I was sent with that first group, so I assumed they were all treated like I was. When I finally did get sent out, I was told to capture a female morph who looked like me and bring her back alive. It didn't sound too challenging. After all, they said I was stronger than she was, and I had the element of surprise.  
"When I did find her, I started wondering why she was helping others escape. I told her I was supposed to bring her back alive, and she said she would rather die than go back. I thought she was insane. It wasn't the most exciting life, but it definitely wasn't the worst, and it was the only one I knew. What was so bad about it? After a bit of fighting she said her name was Grace and asked me what mine was. That caught me off guard. I didn't have a name, at least not one like that. I paused long enough for Grace to knock me out. When I came to she was long gone, so I returned to the boat. They let me off easy that time, saying it was my first mission and now I knew what to expect. I asked one of them what my name was. He seemed surprised and hesitated for a moment before telling me my name was Jeff. I didn't think too much about it. I had a name now, and that was all I wanted.  
"Every time I fought Grace after that she'd say something I'd have to think about. I...I almost looked forward to fighting her. She was different. She didn't say the exact same thing everyone else at the compound said. Then there was a period when she didn't come. I started wondering if she had given up or changed tactics or something. Then she reappeared. I didn't think much about it until she asked if I had missed her. I realized I had, in an odd sort of way. It didn't make any sense; I had no reason to miss her. I thought about it for a long time after it, but I still couldn't figure out why I felt like I did. No one at the compound would have liked me talking about it, so I kept it to myself.  
"A few weeks later there was a change in plans. They had come up with a way to capture Grace. I was to be a decoy in case she tried a rescue earlier than planned. It worked perfectly. Then one of the higher-ups started beating her. At first I couldn't believe it. I had been punished for failing, but never anything like that. I don't remember much after that. There was an explosion, and I ended up under a burning piece of metal. I couldn't get out from under it. I remember seeing Grace lifting up the metal before blacking out. When I woke up I was outside. Grace was sitting close by, just watching me. I didn't understand. Why was she doing nothing? And why had she helped me? When I asked she said everyone deserved a chance to live and left.  
"It felt like a long time before they found me and took me back. After healing my burns they said that it wasn't working and that they would have to go back to the old ways. Then they beat me. It was nothing like they had done to Grace, but it stunned me. They did beat people. That evening I sneaked out. It almost appalled me how easy it was. Had I really been that docile? What I saw stunned me even more than the beating did. There were so many morphs, and all of them looked half-starved. Some of them were being beaten until they collapsed. I was living a lie. Everything they had told me was a lie, and I had been too stupid to find out the truth.  
"It took me a little while to come up with a plan. I was still trying to wrap my mind around everything. Then I decided. I needed to find Grace and ask her. I didn't know exactly what I was going to ask her, but I needed to talk to her. That's all I could think of. I told them I had come up with a way to catch Grace, but I needed to do it alone. They must have thought the beatings did something, because they agreed to let me do it. They gave me some gear that they said might help me. I dumped it all as soon as I could. At least some of it had to contain a tracking device, and this time I didn't want to be followed. I made as many fake trails as I could and hid the real one. I didn't know where Grace was, so I just started walking. There was this pull that I was almost sure I imagined, but if it would lead me to her I was fine with following it.  
"Eventually I did find her. At first I didn't know what I wanted to ask. Then I asked the question that had been bugging me since I had first met her. Why did she risk her life to help others? And why did she help me? That one confused me even more. After talking for a bit I...I asked her to help me. I didn't want to go back to living a lie and pretending everything was OK. I couldn't go back. When she didn't answer right away, I was afraid she'd say no, and that I would have to go back. I didn't know what I would do. Then she said she would help. For a moment I wasn't sure if I had heard her right. Then she took me here."  
Jeff clasped his hands behind his back and stared at the floor, unsure of what to do next. There was a long stretch of silence.  
"I don't believe him," a voice said. Others rose to join it.  
"Me neither."  
"Yeah, when Wigglytuff fly."  
"For all we know he's just trying to find out where we are."  
"Sounds like a pack of lies to me."  
"The next thing we know we'll be trussed up and heading back to that horrible life."  
"Let's just get rid of him."  
Jeff winced at the stinging comments and accusations that were being flung at him. Then a quiet voice cut through the din.  
"I believe him."  
A hush fell on the room as everyone stared at Grace, now standing. She seemed to look at every morph in the room as she continued.  
"At least, I believe him enough to think he's not going to try anything while he's here. Things change. People change. Everyone deserves a chance to live. If we stop believing that, we are no better than Team Rocket. Besides," she gave a small, grim smile, "I highly doubt any of us will give him a chance to do anything that might be dangerous to us."  
The room was silent, apart from a few mutterings and whispers. The morphs looked at each other uneasily, unsure about what to believe. The quiet stretched on for almost a minute. Then Martin stood.  
"Well, that's that," he said, "If Grace is willing to believe him, then I am, too. And if he tries anything, there's enough of us to take him out pretty quick."  
One by one, the other morphs nodded or murmured in agreement. When everyone had conceded Miles stood up.  
"I'm glad that's taken care of. If you'll excuse me I have some work I need to finish."  
He left, and the others started trickling out behind him. Most were either whispering to each other or giving Jeff a try-anything-funny-and-you're-dead stare. Soon the room was empty except for Jeff and Grace.  
"Can I ask you something?" Jeff said once the last morph had left.  
"You just did, but go ahead."  
"You have the most reason to hate me, but you're the one that hates me the least. Why is that?"  
Grace was quiet for a few moments, her gaze seeming to bore a hole right through him. "We're not that different. If our places had been switched, I might have turned out exactly like you, and you might have taken my place. So I have to believe you can change. And..." She shook her head and headed for the door. Jeff, unsure if being alone would warrant his head parting company from his shoulders, followed. Marie was waiting outside the door.  
"I still don't like this," she said as she glared at Jeff.  
"I know," Grace said calmly.  
Marie continued to glare at Jeff for a moment before saying, "Your room's this way." She walked off, Grace a half-step behind. Jeff, perplexed, followed.  
"You didn't put him with someone who will kill him in his sleep, did you?" Grace asked with amusement.  
"No, I asked Clarence if he'd be willing to share a room. He should know how to deal with him."  
Jeff swallowed nervously. Marie had probably put him in the same room as a huge morph with anger management issues. After going down a few halls and around some corners they stopped in front of a door exactly like the rest that lined that particular corridor. Marie knocked, got a muffled, "Come in", opened the door, and stuck her head in.  
"Your new roommate's here. Feel free to kill him if he does anything you don't like."  
Marie gestured for Jeff to go in. With an apprehensive look at Grace he pushed the door open wider and stepped inside. A Machop-morph was lounging on one of the beds. He winked at Jeff as the door shut.  
"Don't worry, I won't kill you without a good reason. That bed's yours." He pointed to the other bed. Jeff, after a little hesitation, went over and sat on it. "Don't be too scared of Marie. She's more bark than bite, though she has taken a real dislike to you."  
"Do you know why?" Jeff asked hesitantly.  
The morph, presumably Clarence, sat up. "Well, you have repeatedly injured Grace, and you've tried to catch her." He saw Jeff's confused look. "Grace and Marie are very close. When you hurt one, it's like hurting the other. Besides, Marie has been trying to keep Grace from running herself into the ground, and all those bruises you gave Grace didn't help much in that."  
"She keeps Grace from running herself into the ground?"  
"Yep. Grace hates sitting around doing nothing, even when she can barely stand. Just watch. You'll see it soon enough. Oh, by the way, I should probably tell you I snore. That's why I haven't had any roommates until now."  
Jeff blinked a couple of times. Just what had he gotten himself into?  
o0oo0oo0o  
"You do know that Clarence can sleep through almost anything, right?" Grace asked as they went down the hall.  
"Yes, but everyone else either had a roommate they didn't want to lose or actually would kill him in his sleep. Besides, I know at least two on either end of the hall that are light sleepers. He'll have a hard time pulling much of anything off."  
Grace grinned a little. "You know Marie, I don't think you hate Jeff nearly as much as you say you do."  
"Oh, believe me, I hate him at least as much as I say I do. I really don't know what you see in him, but it must be invisible to everyone else. Anyway, you'd better get to bed soon, or Julia will be after you tomorrow."  
"All right. Good night." Grace headed towards their room. Jeff's question started running through her head. She did have every reason to hate him. He had tried to capture her, had given her more bruises than she cared to remember, and had presented no reason to trust him other than a sob story. And yet...she just couldn't seem to hate him. What she had told him was true. They were a lot alike, more so than Jeff probably realized. He didn't know that she also remembered nothing from before. What if she had ended up in his place? Would she have been willing to go along with whatever they told her? There were other reasons she didn't hate him, but half of them she wasn't sure about. With a sigh she went into her room and closed the door. She had way too much to think about. Maybe tomorrow she could get away with working in the garden.

* * *

Sorry for not updating last week. I was prepping for finals week, aka this week. But I am now done with finals! Whoo-hoo! And since I might not have internet tomorrow, I'm updating today.

Just as a warning to anyone who wants a Grace-Jeff pairing: it's not going to happen. Sorry. You'll find out why in the next chapter.

Fun fact: Marie's trainer taught her how to draw when she was a Kirlia.


	16. Earplugs, Work, and Stares

When Clarence said he snored, he wasn't lying. Jeff buried his head under his pillow, but that did nothing to dampen the sound. Every snore sounded like a cross between a jackhammer and an earthquake. After a few hours of trying every possible method of blocking out the sound Jeff gave up. As silently as possible he slipped out the door and navigated the hallways. Maybe he could catch a couple of hours of sleep in the lounge.  
"If anyone else found you out here you'd be dead by now."  
Jeff jumped a foot in the air and whirled around. Grace was leaning against a doorway, watching him carefully.  
"I couldn't sleep," Jeff said lamely, staring at the floor.  
"Clarence's snoring?"  
"Yeah." Jeff still couldn't look at her. She was probably going to kill him now.  
"I don't blame you. The first time I heard him snore I thought the roof was falling in."  
Jeff looked up in surprise. "You aren't going to kill me?"  
"Not yet." Grace tossed him something which he caught easily. In his hand were two small orange foam cylinders. Ear plugs. "I won't say they'll block everything, but they might help."  
"Thanks." Jeff started heading back to his room.  
"And Jeff?"  
"Huh?" Jeff stopped and turned.  
"It would probably be in your best interest to not wander the halls at night. Some morphs are very light sleepers."  
"I won't," he promised before returning to his room. As he went he got the feeling Grace was following him. At least she hadn't killed him. Yet.  
The ear plugs did block out most of Clarence's snores, and Jeff was able to fall asleep relatively fast. The next morning he woke right as Clarence was sitting up. As Clarence yawned Jeff pulled out his ear plugs and stashed them under his pillow, silently thanking Grace as he did so.  
"Did you sleep well?" Clarence asked.  
"Better than expected," Jeff answered, stretching.  
"Glad to hear that. Come on, I'll show you where to go."  
Jeff followed Clarence to a sparkling clean kitchen. A Munchlax-morph greeted them cheerfully as they sat at the table and placed two plates of pancakes in front of them. As they started eating Grace and Marie came in and sat down.  
"I see you didn't try anything last night," Marie said as Bart placed two stacks of pancakes in front of them.  
Jeff glanced at Grace, but she didn't say anything. He nodded and continued eating. When both Grace and Jeff were finished Grace said, "Come on, I'll show you how to work in the garden."  
"Grace..." Marie started. Grace held up her hands.  
"Hey, I got my bandages off. Julia says I can work now."  
"What kind of work?"  
"Nothing too strenuous."  
"I remember the last time she told you that you carried that huge table into Ivan's warehouse."  
Grace winked. "There's no huge tables around here that need to be moved, so you don't have to worry."  
Marie rolled her eyes as she finished her pancakes. Jeff, unsure about the conversation, followed Grace through the halls and outside to the large garden plot. At the moment there wasn't anyone else outside. To his surprise Grace took off her shoes and socks and placed them at the edge of the garden.  
"I like to go barefoot," she explained when she saw the confused look on Jeff's face, "I can get away with it while working in the garden by saying I don't wan't to get my shoes dirty. You can keep your's on if you want."  
When Jeff made no move to take his shoes off Grace went into a small shed that stood nearby and returned with two hoes. She handed one to Jeff and started showing him how to hoe up weeds. After several corrections about which plants to hoe up Jeff set to it with a will. He was concentrating so hard on not tearing up the wrong ones that he didn't notice the other morphs that had come out to work in the garden until Grace stopped for a short break. As she stretched Jeff looked around curiously. The number of morphs was small compared to the group he had been faced with last night, but all of them seemed to be watching him closely.  
"How are you holding up?" Grace asked.  
"I don't think I hoed up the wrong plants this time," Jeff answered, wondering if Grace had been watching him like the others had.  
"You haven't," she said.  
After a couple of minutes they went back to work. Jeff once again focused almost solely on his work, partly to make sure he didn't mess up and partly to avoid the stares that followed him wherever he went. He almost jumped out of his skin when the lunch bell rang. Grace seemed to smile a little at his reaction.  
"Don't worry, you'll get used to it."  
Jeff followed her as she put her shoes back on and went back inside. After washing their hands they got their food and sat down. As Grace began eating Jeff glanced around. Everyone was staring at him, much like they had in the garden. He stared at his plate, moving the food around with his fork.  
"What is it?"  
Jeff looked up. Was Grace...concerned? "Nothing. Just how everyone is staring at me," he mumbled.  
"Don't think about it too much," Grace said, "Everyone's just being careful. They'll ease up after a while."  
For some reason Grace sounded like she understood how he was feeling. Had she also been watched like that? No, the other morphs respected her too much. But then how would she understand?  
"Um, Grace? Could I ask you something?"  
"Sure."  
"Did they ever watch you like that?"  
Grace thought for a moment. "Not exactly like they're watching you, but yes, they have watched me fairly closely. In fact, some of them still do."  
"Why?"  
"Well, according to Marie it's because I'm a hero and therefore a role model."  
Jeff didn't say anything, and Grace went back to eating. After a minute or so Marie joined them.  
"Anything happen?" she asked.  
"Other than a few near misses with the potato plants, no," Grace answered.  
Marie gave Jeff a long, searching look before turning her attention to her food. Jeff thought about what Clarence had said about Marie, how she kept Grace from running herself into the ground and how she hated Jeff because he had made that job harder. Maybe if he helped keep Grace from overworking herself Marie would hate him less. No, she'd probably think he was up to something. If he didn't cause it, though, maybe, just maybe, she'd lighten up a bit.  
"Your food isn't going to jump into your mouth, you know," Marie said.  
Jeff blinked as he mentally shook himself free of his thoughts. "Sorry. I was just thinking."  
He started eating his now-cold food, missing the look that passed between Grace and Marie. After lunch Grace and Jeff went back out to the garden and worked until dinner. The meal was a quiet one, with Marie and Grace eating and Jeff trying to ignore the looks he was receiving. When that was finished Jeff followed them to the lounge, where Marie and Grace talked softly while Jeff thought. After about two hours he excused himself and went to bed.  
"He follows you around like a lost puppy," Marie said once he was out of the room.  
"That's probably because I don't treat him like he's going to go psycho and try to kill everyone."  
"You really should be more careful."  
"I am being careful. Besides..."  
"Besides what?"  
Grace was quiet a moment, trying to organize her thoughts. "If he really has changed sides, I don't want to drive him away. If he hasn't, I'm hoping he'll change his mind. Treating him like a rabid animal won't help that."  
Marie was silent for a minute, digesting what Grace had said. "I still don't like him," she finally said.  
"I know," Grace said, smiling a little, "But I still think you don't hate him nearly as much as you say you do."  
Marie did not deign to reply, instead saying that she had something she needed to do. As she was standing up Miles came in.  
"Could you two come with me for a second?" he asked, "I have something that might interest you."  
Marie and Grace nodded and followed him to the lab. Two of the screens had lists with a bar graph by each item. As Miles sat down Grace noticed one of them was the same list and percentages of various DNA fragments Miles had extracted from her DNA. The other was almost exactly the same except some of the numbers were slightly different.  
"The one on the right is Grace's DNA structure," Miles said, gesturing to the screen. "The other is Jeff's."  
Marie frowned as she leaned closer for a better look. "They're almost the same."  
Mile nodded. "That's right. There's only a fourteen percent difference between the two, not including gender. I've never heard of two different sets of DNA being so similar, even in identical twins."  
There was a moment of silence as everyone stared at the screens.  
"Well, I guess everyone has an evil twin somewhere," Marie finally said.  
Grace didn't say anything. She was too busy thinking about what this meant. They obviously didn't take DNA from two different Pokémon or two different humans, which meant that either they had taken her DNA and tweaked it a little to create Jeff, or neither she nor Jeff had technically existed before becoming morphs. She wasn't sure about how she felt about the last one. It had always been a possibility in the back of her mind, but she had never thought about it much. With this new information, though, it was looking like a distinct possibility.  
"Grace, are you OK?" Marie asked as she touched Grace's shoulder. Grace blinked as she shook herself free of her thoughts.  
"Yeah, just thinking."  
Marie nodded in understanding, though there was a slightly worried look in her eyes. "We should probably get to bed."  
"Probably. Thanks for showing us this, Miles."  
"My pleasure," Miles said.  
After saying goodnight Grace and Marie went to bed, each thinking about what they had just been told.

* * *

Sorry, to all those who wanted a Grace-Jeff pairing. As you can see, it would just be too awkward. On the plus side, I do have a cover for this story now. Info on it in my profile.

Fun fact: Clarence's snoring partially comes from the fact that my entire family snores, and when they snore at the same time I can hear it through the walls of my bedroom.


	17. Jeff learns a New Skill

The next week or so followed about the same routine: Jeff would wake up, go to breakfast, work with Grace in the garden until lunch, eat lunch, work in the garden until dinner, eat dinner, sit in the lounge until everyone's staring made him too uncomfortable, and go to bed. Then an unexpected change came. It was mid-morning when Marie came out to the garden.  
"A group's been sighted," she said.  
Grace nodded and dropped her hoe. Jeff paused, unsure what to do.  
"You too," Marie said. Confused, Jeff followed them. Marie stopped outside the lounge. "Sit there and don't move," she said, pointing to a chair.  
Grace rolled her eyes. "Marie, do you really..."  
"Yes, I do. Now sit."  
Jeff obediently sat in the chair. After giving him a move-and-you're-dead look Marie left. Grace shrugged apologetically before following. As he sat Jeff started wondering if Marie would know if he moved. If he left the room someone else would probably see him and tell her, but what about just moving around the room? No, someone might see him and tell her anyways. Of course, if he left there was a chance that someone would think he was up to something and try to kill him. He was probably better off sitting here like Marie had told him to. Fifteen minutes later, though, he started wondering if there was something else he could do while he waited. As he sat there fidgeting Bart walked by and saw him.  
"Hi, Jeff. I thought you'd be working out in the garden."  
"Grace went to rescue another morph and Marie told me to sit here and not move."  
Bart chuckled. "I can't blame you for doing what she says. When did Grace leave?"  
Jeff shrugged. "About fifteen minutes or so ago."  
"Hm." Bart thought for a moment. "She might not be back for another hour or two. That's an awfully long time to sit and do nothing." He snapped his fingers. "I have something that you could do. Wait just a second."  
Still fidgeting, Jeff waited for Bart to return. Just what kind of thing did the Munchlax-morph have in mind for him?  
After successfully rescuing another morph and showing her around, Grace and Marie returned to the lounge to find Jeff sitting exactly where Marie had told him to, working with what appeared to be a large ball of blue and white yarn.  
"What are you doing?" Marie asked.  
"Knitting." Jeff held up two knitting needles and what looked like the beginning of a scarf.  
"Where'd you learn how to knit?"  
"Bart taught me."  
"Bart knows how to knit?" Marie looked at Grace, who shrugged, before sighing. "Well, as long as it keeps you out of trouble."  
With Marie's permission Jeff knitted for the rest of the day, only stopping for meals. By the time dinner came around he had a fair length done.  
"How's the knitting coming?" Grace asked as he sat down by her with his plate.  
"I have about this much done," he replied, holding his fingers about a foot apart.  
"What are you going to do with it when you're done?"  
Jeff shrugged. "I haven't gotten that far yet."  
"Maybe you could give it to someone," Grace suggested.  
Jeff thought about it as he ate. He didn't really have a use for a scarf. But who would he give it to? He'd have to think about it.  
After dinner Jeff followed Grace to the lounge, where a pretty (in Jeff's opinion) Blaziken-morph named Rin told how Grace had used smoke bombs and some very careful maneuvering to rescue her. When she said how grateful she was to be rescued Jeff watched Grace out of the corner of his eye. Grace nodded silently, her lips curved in a slight smile, but otherwise did nothing. It was odd, he thought, how Grace was such a hero in the eyes of everyone here, yet she acted as though she was no better than everyone else. No wonder everyone considered her a role model.  
After the telling most of the morphs dispersed. Grace and Marie stayed in the lounge, talking, while Jeff worked on his knitting. He still didn't know what he was going to do with his scarf. Give it to Grace, maybe? She didn't seem like the kind of person who'd like scarves, though. But who would like it?  
Over the next three weeks whenever Grace went to rescue another morph Jeff would sit in the lounge and knit. When he finally finished his scarf he held it up. There were a few bumps and a missed stitch here and there, but over all it didn't look too bad. When Grace and Marie came back he went and stood awkwardly in front of Marie and held out the scarf.  
"Marie, um, I thought I'd give you this, um, to say, uh, thanks, you know, for not killing me and stuff."  
Marie just stared at him for a second before accepting the scarf. "Thanks, I think."  
She left. Once she was out of earshot Grace, who had hitherto been almost completely straight faced, burst out laughing.  
"What's so funny?" Jeff asked, confused and slightly alarmed at the loud laughter coming from the normally taciturn Grace.  
"The look on her face," Grace managed to say after her laughter had subsided, "It was priceless."  
Jeff grinned a little. It had been a little funny now that he thought of it. After Grace got control of herself they went to work in the garden until dinner. When they got to the dining hall Marie was already there. To their surprise she was wearing the scarf.  
"It complements your sweater very nicely," Grace said as they sat down. Although her tone had been neutral, Jeff thought he saw a hint of a grin on her face. Marie didn't bother to reply, and they ate in silence. Jeff inwardly smiled. If Marie was wearing the scarf he had made, maybe that meant she didn't hate him as much as she said she did.

* * *

Fun fact: Jeff learning how to knit was inspired by my little brother, who can knit (which makes him even more awesome) and the fact that I can knit.


	18. Jeff's Mission

The next week went by with virtually no change in schedule. Then one day Marie came out to the garden with a worried look on her face.  
"We have a problem."  
Grace frowned and followed her inside, while Jeff trailed after and took his normal spot in the lounge. In the lab Marie gestured to one of the monitors.  
"There's two morphs in this group, and it's twice as big as usual. I don't know if you'll be able to pull this one off."  
Grace silently watched the group as it moved through the forest, her brain going though every possibility she could think of.  
"I might have to get Jeff to help on this one," she said at last.  
"Are you crazy?!" Marie exclaimed.  
"Possibly," Grace replied, "but I doubt I'd be able to pull it off by myself, and if I do nothing then this will become the norm. That would make it that much harder to do a rescue."  
"Couldn't you take someone else like Clarence?"  
"He's sick."  
"Lyra?"  
"Too slow."  
Marie rattled off almost every other morph, but Grace had a justifiable reason as to why they couldn't help with the rescue.  
"But what if he turns on you?" Marie asked after she saw that Grace wouldn't take anyone else.  
"I'll kill him," Grace said solemnly.  
Marie frowned deeply, but finally nodded. "If you really think this is going to work. Miles, do you have anything that could instantly kill him?"  
Miles, who had up to that point been listening with something resembling amusement, said, "No, but even if I did I wouldn't use it for fear you'd get a little trigger-happy."  
Marie sighed. "I still don't like this, but I guess if you feel like it might work. Just be careful."  
Grace nodded and left to get Jeff, who was working on a red and yellow scarf. He looked both surprised and confused when Grace motioned for him to follow her. She led him to a room he had never been in before. Jeff looked around with interest.  
"So this is how..."  
"Yes it is. Now be quiet," Marie snapped.  
Grace gave her a "calm down" look before speaking. "The group on the screen is twice as large as a normal one and has two morphs. There is very little chance that I would be able to do it myself. Would you be willing to help?"  
Jeff blinked in surprise. "Sure, but why me?"  
"Grace feels that no one else would be able to do it," Marie answered icily.  
"Oh. OK," Jeff said, wondering how long Marie and Grace had argued before Marie had given in.  
"Miles, do you have that extra mike hooked up?" Grace asked.  
"Yep," Miles held up the flesh-colored wire.  
"What's this for?" Jeff asked as Miles showed him how to put it on.  
"So Marie can yell at you," Miles answered with a wink.  
"One more thing," Grace said once Jeff was equipped, "If you try anything, I will kill you. No exceptions. Got it?"  
Jeff swallowed nervously and nodded. Grace was dead serious.  
"Good. Let's go."  
Jeff followed Grace outside. As they jogged north Jeff wondered exactly what Grace was planning on doing. How had she managed to do it all the other times? From Rin's experience he knew she used smoke bombs, but she hadn't used them all the time, had she? From what he'd heard she never directly attacked the groups, either.  
"They're following the same path they always take. Are you going to do the tree thing again?" Marie asked over the mike.  
"Something like that," She looked at Jeff. "Here's what you need to do. We're going to hide in a tree right over where they're going to come. When one of the morphs is under you I'm going to throw down a few smoke bombs. When I do that grab the morph, cover their mouth, and pull them up. Once I've pulled up the other morph I'll hand them to you. You need to keep them quiet."  
"What will you be doing?" Jeff asked.  
"Making sure they don't look up."  
"Please tell me you're not going to do the same thing you did the first time," Marie said.  
"Unless you can think of a better way to distract them."  
Marie let out an aggravated sigh. "Just be careful."  
Except for a few course corrections from Marie they traveled on in silence until they reached a tree that would hopefully be right in the group's path. Grace climbed it quickly. Jeff, new to the experience of tree climbing, followed a little slower. Grace positioned him and motioned for him to be quiet. After about fifteen minutes Marie spoke up.  
"They're close to you."  
After a minute they heard the sound of feet. A large group, larger than any Jeff had seen, came marching by, passing right under them. He caught a glimpse of what looked like a Froslass-morph beneath him before Grace threw down some smoke bombs. He swung down and grabbed the first thing his hand found. It felt like a cross between an arm and an icicle. A small gasp told him where the morph's mouth was, and he covered it with his other hand before pulling the morph up and setting her on the branch. She looked startled and wary, squinting at him in an effort to see him through the smoke that was drifting up between the branches. When he was sure she wouldn't make any loud noises Jeff removed his hand from her mouth.  
"What's going on?" she hissed.  
"A rescue," Jeff whispered back.  
The morph nodded. Something touched Jeff's shoulder. He turned and saw Grace with a Grovyle-morph.  
"Stay here," she whispered in his ear before disappearing into the smoke.  
As he waited Jeff realized he had the perfect opportunity. All he had to do was knock out the other morphs, slip down, and tell the grunts what was going on. They'd catch Grace, and he'd be welcomed back. But...he didn't want to do that. He had tried to find Grace to escape, and he didn't want to go back to living a lie. Besides, Grace had trusted him enough not only to risk taking him to the morphs' haven, but also to ask for his help with this rescue. She had accepted him and had stood up for him when everyone else had wanted to kill him. He couldn't betray her like that. So he sat on the branch and waited for Grace to come back.  
"They're gone," Marie said.  
Jeff waited until Grace came back, moving quickly and stealthily, and gestured for them to come down. The Grovyle-morph jumped down easily enough, but Jeff had to help the Froslass-morph from her perch before jumping down himself.  
"We need to get out of here fast," Grace said once they were all down. She gestured for the Grovyle-morph to get on her back. Jeff did the same for the other. Once the new morphs were securely on their backs they took off, pausing occasionally while Grace covered their tracks. As they ran Jeff couldn't help but shiver at the icy breath on his neck. Did Grace have do deal with stuff like that all the time?  
They made it back without incident. The new morphs got off their backs and followed them to the exam room. Marie and Julia were waiting there, as well as four plates of food. Jeff suddenly realized how hungry he was. Rescuing morphs was a lot more work than he had originally thought it was.  
"Congratulations," Marie said to him, "I don't have to kill you."  
"Um...thanks?"  
Jeff could have sworn he heard Grace snickering, but when he looked at her she was busy eating. When he finished eating Julia kicked him out so she could examine the Froslass-morph. Perfectly alright with that, Jeff went to the lounge and knitted until dinner. He got his food and sat down in his usual place. Before long he found himself between Grace and the Frosslass-morph, who introduced herself as Ice. As he ate Jeff noticed Ice kept looking at him. Marie, for some reason, seemed to find it funny. When they were finished Grace led the way to the lounge. Fully aware that he was making a risky move, Jeff dropped back to talk to Marie.  
"Hey, Marie, um, do you know why Ice kept looking at me during dinner?"  
Marie looked at him, a slight grin tugging at her lips. "You really don't know?"  
"Well, um...no."  
Marie rolled her eyes. "She likes you."  
"Like doesn't-hate-me kind of like?"  
"No, like-like."  
"Wait, like like-like?"  
"Yeah."  
Jeff looked a little shell-shocked. "Oh."  
Marie chuckled. "Between you and Grace," she murmured.  
They went into the lounge and sat down by Grace. Ice and the other morph, Basil, told about their escape. Ice focused mostly on Jeff's part, all the while shooting him flirty looks. Jeff started turning red and fidgeting. To his surprise Marie, though obviously amused by this, didn't say anything either during or after the tellings. He had been sure she'd say something about it. Maybe she was finally warming up to him.  
After the tellings Jeff muttered something about leaving something somewhere and fled the lounge in an effort to escape Ice. The next morning he was up a little earlier than usual. Grace smiled a little when she came out and saw him working in the garden.  
"Marie told me about Ice having a crush on you," she said as she started to hoe alongside him.  
"She's not going to come out here, is she?" Jeff asked, a little worried.  
"Don't worry, Marie found her a job helping Bart in the kitchen. You probably won't see her much during the day."  
Jeff sighed with relief. For some reason being around someone who was flirting with him made him uncomfortable. Maybe it was from being around people who didn't like him for so long and suddenly having someone who had a crush on him.

* * *

Fun fact: Jeff's obliviousness comes from one of my brothers, who couldn't tell when a girl was flirting with him when even I could see it.


	19. We Have a Problem

The next week and a half passed uneventfully, except the occasional incident where Jeff tried various means to avoid Ice. It was afternoon when Marie, who had just come back from town, found them in the garden.  
"What is it?" Grace asked when she saw the worried look on Marie's face.  
"This," Marie handed her a piece of paper. Jeff managed to get a look at it. His eyes widened when he realized what it was. On the paper was a picture of Grace with the words "Wanted for armed robbery and assault" with a number for people to call if they had seen her. Grace frowned.  
"Do you think anyone has called?"  
"I doubt it. You've only been in town twice. The only ones who really noticed you were Ivan and the people who work for him, and I doubt they'd turn you in."  
"There's always a chance, though, especially if they offer a reward," Grace's frown deepened. "This is bad."  
"What are we going to do?"  
"I don't know." Grace handed the paper back to Marie. "You'd better show this to Miles and Julia."  
"What will you be doing?"  
"Thinking," Grace replied as she picked up her hoe and started working.  
Marie sighed and went inside. Not sure what else to do, Jeff went back to work. This was bad. If they had started looking in town for Grace then how long would it be until they came here? They obviously thought he had died, failed, or run off. It was only a matter of time before they came looking and found them here, and when that happened they would all either be killed or dragged back. Jeff had a horrible feeling that both he and Grace were likely to be the first ones killed if that happened. Hopefully Grace would come up with a plan.  
When the dinner bell rang Grace continued to work, saying she still needed to think. Jeff kept an eye out for her during dinner, but she never came in. He was about ready to go look for her when Marie came and sat by him.  
"Have you seen Grace?"  
Jeff shook his head. "The last time I saw her she was still working in the garden."  
Marie sighed. "I swear she's going to kill herself one of these days."  
"Would you like me to take some food out to her?"  
"If you would I'd be grateful. And maybe remind her to get some sleep."  
Jeff quickly took care of his dishes before grabbing a plate and filling it with food he knew Grace liked. Marie must be really worried if she was letting Jeff do something like this. He went outside and found Grace still working. Feeling a little awkward, he went over to her.  
"Marie asked me to bring you some food," he said, holding out the plate.  
Grace blinked a couple of times, obviously startled out of her thoughts, before taking the plate. "Thanks," she said before wolfing down the food, handing the plate back to Jeff, and continuing with her work.  
"Um, Marie wanted me to remind you to get some sleep, too."  
Grace nodded but didn't say anything. Unsure of what else to do, Jeff went back inside. As he was heading to the lounge he ran into Marie.  
"Was she still out in the garden?"  
"Yeah."  
Marie sighed and rubbed her temple. "She really is going to kill herself at this rate. There's no way to convince her to come inside at this point, though. I just hope she actually goes to bed sometime tonight."  
"Knock her out, maybe?"  
Marie gave a humorless chuckle. "Don't tempt me." With another sigh she left.  
The next morning at breakfast Marie came in just as Jeff started eating. She looked both tired and worried.  
"Grace didn't go to bed at all last night."  
"Really?" Jeff frowned. Had she really worked all night?  
"If she did she didn't sleep in her bed. After breakfast I'm going to talk to her."  
After a hurried breakfast Jeff followed Marie out to the garden. Sure enough, Grace was out there, still working.  
"You weren't out here all night, were you?" Marie asked.  
Grace shrugged.  
"Did you get any sleep?"  
"I took a nap."  
"How long?"  
Grace shrugged again. Marie sighed and rubbed her forehead.  
"Grace, if you keep going on like this you're going to kill yourself."  
Another shrug.  
"She's right," Jeff said, "You're going to burn yourself out at this rate."  
Yet another shrug.  
"Will you at least come and eat breakfast?" Marie pleaded.  
"I'm still thinking."  
Marie shook her head in defeat before turning to Jeff. "Keep an eye on her," she said before going inside.  
For the rest of the day Jeff worked right alongside Grace. He almost had to drag her inside for lunch and dinner, which she inhaled before going back outside. When it got dark Marie came back out, a stern look on her face.  
"Grace, you're going to bed."  
"I'm not done thinking."  
"Tough. Now come on."  
Grace's lips pressed together in a stubborn line as she continued hoeing.  
"You really should get some sleep," Jeff said, "You don't think as well when you're tired. Besides, if you keep this up there won't be anything for you to do out here."  
"And we're not afraid to drag you all the way there, either," Marie added.  
Grace looked up and saw the stubborn look on both Marie's and Jeff's faces. She sighed and put down her hoe. "I guess you're not going to give me a choice, are you."  
Marie gave her a grim little smile. "Glad you finally got it. Now come on."  
Grace followed Marie to their room, with Jeff following behind. Outside the door Marie stopped and turned to Grace.  
"Now promise you won't get up in the middle of the night and go back to work."  
When Grace hesitated Jeff said, "If you don't promise I will sit outside your room all night."  
Jeff had a stern, almost expressionless look on his face. Grace, realizing he was dead serious, sighed. "All right. I promise I won't get up in the middle of the night."  
Marie nodded in a satisfied manner. "Good. Now let's go to bed."  
The next morning Jeff had just barely sat down in the kitchen when Grace came in, followed by Marie. Jeff wondered for a moment what kinds of threats Marie had used to convince Grace to come to breakfast. After eating the plate of French toast Bart placed in front of her Grace went outside. Maybe this was what Clarence had meant when he said Marie tried to keep Grace from running herself into the ground. After he finished his breakfast Jeff followed Grace outside. It was almost noon when Grace suddenly dropped her hoe.  
"I need to talk to Miles," she said before going inside.  
Jeff stared after her for a few minutes before the lunch bell rang. In the dining hall Marie came and sat by Jeff.  
"Where's Grace?" she asked.  
"I don't know. She was just working when all of a sudden she said she needed to talk to Miles and went inside."  
Marie frowned. "I guess that's a little improvement, even though she's still missing meals."  
"Do you think she'll come up with a plan?"  
"I know she will. I'm just worried about what kind of plan she'll come up with."  
"What do you mean?"  
Marie shook her head. "It'll probably involve her taking a huge risk. I'm just worried that one day it'll go wrong."  
Jeff frowned to himself as he continued eating. He knew Grace was willing to make risks, but how big of a risk would she take? Would she actually gamble with her life?  
That night during dinner Grace came in. "Can you two come with me?" she asked Marie and Jeff.  
"Not until you eat something," Marie replied.  
Grace and Marie tried staring each other down. Finally Grace sighed.  
"Fine."  
She went and got some food. After inhaling it she led them to the lab. Miles was sitting in his chair, tinkering with something that looked like an extra-large pen.  
"So what's the plan?" Marie asked after the door closed.  
Grace hesitated. "You're not going to like it."  
"I know. So what is it?"  
"Jeff's going to take me back."  
"Are you crazy?!" Marie exclaimed, echoing Jeff's thoughts almost exactly.  
"Probably, but it's the only way we can think of that has even a remote chance of working."  
Marie sighed and rubbed her temple. "All right, let's hear it."  
"Miles invented something like a miniature stun-gun. That's what he's tinkering with right now. It isn't very big, so I would probably be able to smuggle a bunch with me. Jeff could also take some if needed. Once there I'll get the word out to the morphs there and pass out the stun-guns. Then sometime during the night we'll start a revolt."  
"And what will the rest of us be doing?" Marie asked, arms crossed.  
"I have a friend who does a lot of marine research," Miles said, "He's agreed to let me borrow his boat. It's large enough to carry most of the morphs here over there. We'll be waiting out of sight until the revolt starts, then we'll come in and help."  
"And what if they don't put you with the other morphs?"  
"Then Jeff will sneak out and get the word and the weapons around," Grace answered Marie.  
"And what if you're searched?"  
"Then we'd better hope the boat's in position."  
Marie sighed and rubbed her forehead. "There's so many ways this could go wrong."  
"I know, but we're almost out of both time and options. We have to act as soon as possible."  
"And when were you thinking of pulling this off?"  
"No later than a week."  
"That doesn't give us much time to prepare."  
"No, it doesn't, which is why we need to start now."  
Marie glanced at Jeff and saw concern on his face. "What is it?"  
Jeff slowly shook his head. "It's just...are you sure you trust me enough to do something this important? I mean, I seem to have a big part in this, and I...I don't know if..."  
"If you can pull it off?"  
Jeff looked at his shoes and nodded.  
Marie stared at him for a moment. "I still don't entirely trust you, but...if Grace thinks you can do this, I guess I can believe you can, too."  
Jeff blinked in surprise before looking at Grace, silently asking her opinion.  
"I think you can," Grace said quietly.  
Jeff hesitated for a second before nodding. "All right, I guess I could give it a shot."  
"Do you want to break it to the others now?" Marie asked Grace.  
"Might as well," Grace replied, "The sooner everyone knows the sooner we can do it."  
Marie left to round everyone up while Grace, Jeff, and Miles went to the lounge. Jeff noticed that someone had taped Grace's wanted poster to the wall, crossed out "armed robbery and assault", and written in "kicking Team Rocket's trash". He wondered who had done it. Some of the morphs wouldn't have put it so politely.  
The lounge started filling up. Jeff, thankfully, was sitting between Miles and Grace, which prevented Ice from sitting by him. Once Marie came in and confirmed everyone was there Grace stood up, causing everyone to fall silent.  
"As you know, we have a problem," she said, nodding towards the wanted poster, "They've started looking for me, and it's only a matter of time until they come here. We have a choice: wait until they come, or bring the fight to them. To wait here would endanger our home. So I've decided to bring the fight to them."  
"We're with you," someone called out. There was a chorus of agreements.  
"Thank you," Grace said, "Now here's the plan I came up with."  
Everyone listened quietly as Grace outlined her plan, though there were some muttered objections when she explained Jeff's part. When she was done she fell silent, allowing them to voice questions or concerns.  
"This seems awfully risky," a morph at the back said.  
"It is, but unless someone has a better idea it's all we've got."  
"Does everyone have to go?" Ethan asked in his quiet voice.  
There were several exclamations of "yes!" and "of course!", but Grace shook her head.  
"If you don't want to fight then you don't have to. If you choose to stay behind I won't think any less of you."  
There were several raised eyebrows, but no one objected. After a few more questions everyone got up to begin preparing. Several asked Grace what they could do to help. After a bit it was only Grace, Marie, and Jeff left.  
"In a week all heck breaks loose," Grace said, and the others nodded in agreement.

* * *

Fun fact: In "morph culture," morphs usually keep the name their trainer gave them. If their trainer didn't name them, they usually take on the name of their trainer or someone close to their trainer, making necessary changes to keep it gender-consistent. Few morphs actually make up a name for themselves.


	20. Reluctant Return

The next week was bordering on chaotic. Everywhere morphs were preparing for what they hoped was the final battle. Grace was always in the middle of it all, doing everything from figuring out logistics to moving supplies. Finally the day arrived. Jeff was waiting awkwardly outside, once again dressed in his Rocket uniform and with a small coil of rope around his shoulder. He tugged at his clothes uncomfortably. It surprised him that no one had burned it. Maybe it got lost. Or someone thought they might need it, like now.  
Grace came out, interrupting Jeff's ponderings about where his uniform had been. "Are you about ready?" she asked.  
"About as ready as I ever will be."  
Grace nodded. "Before we get our equipment, there's one other thing we need to do."  
"What's that?"  
"Hit me a few times."  
"Wait, what?" Jeff asked, startled.  
"It needs to look like we were in a fight, otherwise they'll be suspicious and you'll have to do some fast talking. Now hit me."  
Jeff looked around. "Is Marie around?"  
"She's helping Julia with her wonder-gunk. Now come on."  
"I don't know..."  
Grace's fist hit Jeff squarely in the eye. He staggered back.  
"What was that for?" he exclaimed.  
"You need to look like you were in a fight too. Now let's get this over with."  
With a bit of reluctance on Jeff's part he and Grace started fighting, both aiming more to give bruises than to actually hurt the other. Jeff noticed that Grace wasn't putting up much of a fight, letting him give her many more bruises than she gave him. After both of them had bloody noses and plenty of bruises Grace called a halt. Jeff gratefully backed off, pinching his bleeding nose. Marie chose that moment to walk out, carrying two mikes and an armful of belts and straps with Miles' mini stun-guns on them.  
"What happened to you two? Did you get hit by a truck or something?"  
"She started it," Jeff said, pointing to Grace.  
Grace rolled her eyes. "We were just trying to look like we fought each other."  
"Well, you did a good job." Marie handed them the mikes before starting to sort out the stun-gun holsters. "Miles said he had enough for both of you, just in case, but you both want to be careful nothing accidentally sets them off."  
"Maybe we could pass that off as a seizure," Grace said as she started strapping on the stun-guns.  
"Ha ha. Don't try it."  
After a few minutes both Jeff and Grace had stun-guns concealed under their shirts, around their legs, and, in Jeff's case, up his sleeves. After some careful scrutiny Marie pronounced them hidden well enough to avoid being seen.  
"Everything ready?" Miles asked as he walked outside.  
"Yep," Grace said.  
Miles nodded, then caught sight of Grace and Jeff. "What happened to you two?"  
"We figured there would be less questions asked if it looked like we fought each other."  
"Ah," Miles nodded in understanding. "I'll start getting everyone headed out." He placed a hand on Grace's shoulder. "Good luck."  
When he had gone back inside Grace turned to Marie. "How much wonder-gunk did Julia make?"  
"Fifteen gallons or so. She said she's preparing for the worst."  
"So that's why it's smelled so bad in there for a last couple of days," Jeff said.  
Marie rolled her eyes. They stood there in silence for a few moments.  
"Marie, I want you to stay here," Grace finally said.  
Marie smiled sadly and shook her head. "Not this time, Grace. I'll be risking my life with the rest of us."  
"Just be careful."  
"I will if you will."  
They hugged each other tightly.  
"Just don't die like Tori," Marie whispered.  
"I won't if you won't," Grace whispered back.  
They let go of each other. Marie turned to Jeff. "You let anything happen to her and..." she drew a finger across her throat. Jeff nodded solemnly.  
"If there's any way I can prevent it, I will."  
Marie nodded in a satisfied manner before looking back at Grace. "Good luck," she said softly before going inside.  
"Shall we be going?" Grace asked.  
Jeff nodded, and they started walking north. They went in silence, each trying not to think about how this could go wrong.  
"Grace, can I ask you something?" Jeff said suddenly.  
"What?"  
"Who's Tori?"  
Grace stopped walking. "Why do you ask?"  
Jeff shrugged uncomfortably. "I heard another morph mention him. Everyone seemed sad when his name was said, so I never asked. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."  
Grace sighed and started walking again. "He was a friend. A close friend."  
Jeff nodded, but didn't say anything. They continued on in silence until they were close to where the Team Rocket ships docked. They creeped close enough to see that there was a motor boat docked there and a grunt guarding it before retreating far enough away to avoid detection.  
"Now we just wait for Marie."  
After about five minutes there was a quiet burst of static, followed by Marie's voice.  
"You two there?"  
"Yep," Grace answered.  
"And Jeff?"  
"I'm here too."  
"Good. We're heading out. Start whenever you're ready."  
"All right. Jeff, tie me up."  
Jeff took his rope and tied Grace's wrists together behind her back.  
"Come on, you can tie it tighter than that."  
Jeff sighed and pulled the ropes tighter, hoping he wasn't cutting off her circulation in the process. When Grace deemed it tight enough Jeff stepped back and got himself ready. His face became emotionless and his posture became a little more stiff, like the Jeff Grace was used to fighting.  
"Ready?" Grace asked.  
Jeff nodded and took hold of her arms. Grace hung her head as if in defeat, and they began marching towards the dock. When the grunt saw them his eyebrows nearly reached his hairline. Once he got over his initial shock he pulled out a hand-held radio.  
"LMO-2 has returned with LMO-1 and is at the dock."  
"Get them over here. Now," a voice crackled in response.  
"Roger that." The grunt put away the radio and motioned for them to get in the boat. Jeff sat Grace down before taking a seat beside her, still holding onto her arm. The grunt got in, turned on the motor, and steered them out onto the open sea. As they skipped over the waves Grace discretely glanced at Jeff's face. It was emotionless, but his eyes had a faraway look, as if his mind was somewhere else. She couldn't blame him. She'd rather be thinking about almost anything other than this mission and how it could go wrong, too.  
After almost an hour they arrived at Team Rocket's island. A small group, mostly well-muscled grunts, was waiting for them. Once they had disembarked the grunts surrounded them and started marching them towards the main building, a huge square construction that loomed over the rest of the island.  
"Did you search her?" one of the grunts asked.  
"Yeah. She's clean," Jeff answered.  
They entered the building and went down a flight of stairs before going into a windowless room. A man was waiting for them there, the same man Grace had almost killed her first day. His fingers were tapping the handle of his whip impatiently.  
"What took you so long?" he asked Jeff, though his eyes were fixed on Grace.  
"It took me a while to find where she was hiding, as well as what her movements were like."  
The man seemed dissatisfied with that answer, but he didn't comment on it. His eyes narrowed as he glared at Grace, a malicious smile beginning to tug at his lips. "It doesn't matter. You're here, and you can't escape this time."  
He grabbed her arm, spun her around, and shoved her to her knees before pulling out his whip. As it lashed across her back again and again Grace glanced up at Jeff. His face was still emotionless, but his jaw tightened and his hands curled into fists. As the blood started trickling down her back Grace closed her eyes, taking comfort in the hope that this would be the last time she would ever feel that whip on her back. After what felt like forever the whip stopped.  
"Get her out of here."  
"Should we put her in isolation?"  
"No, there isn't enough room. Put her with the others."  
Grace was hauled upright and dragged out of the room. As she passed by Jeff he gave an almost imperceptible nod. Grace blinked in reply before being hauled up the stairs and outside. Once they got to the area where the food always was she was untied and shoved into the crowd. As several morphs caught her she realized that it must be dinner time. Had the day really gone by that fast?  
"Grace, what are you doing back here?" a Ninetales-morph Grace recognized as one called Nina asked.  
"It's part of a plan," Grace said in a low voice.  
"You mean...you're going to break the rest of us out of here?" Nina asked in an equally low voice.  
"That's right, if you're all willing to help."  
The ones who could hear her nodded. The word was quickly passed around in hushed whispers, and all the other morphs clustered around. While the other morphs were blocking her from view Grace quickly took out the stun-guns and passed them out.  
"These are stun-guns. Just hit a guard with this end and he'll be out for a few hours. They only have one use, though, and I don't have that many. Try to have at least one per hut. Later tonight my friend will bring more. He looks almost exactly like me except he's a guy and he'll be wearing a Rocket uniform. If he says I sent him listen to him. After the moon sets everyone with a stun-gun can start taking out guards. Try to sneak up on them so they don't raise the alarm. Those who are good at sneaking and climbing need to try to take out the guards on the towers. Once all the guards out here are taken care of we can worry about the buildings. Got it?"  
There was a quiet murmur of assent, and the morphs started drifting away. Not long after the guards came and started herding them towards their huts. Grace once again found herself in the hut she had first woken up in. With a sigh she sat down against the wall right by the door so that no one outside could see her.  
"Grace, are you OK?" Marie's worried voice came over the mike.  
"Yeah. Are you guys ready?"  
"We're ready. Everyone's getting a little antsy over here, though."  
"I don't blame them. Jeff, are you in a position to talk right now?"  
"Yeah, I'm alone right now," Jeff said.  
"Did you get what you have to do?"  
"Sneak out, go to the nearest hut, say you sent me, and give them the guns. Right?"  
"That's it. If there's any problems let me know."  
"You got it."  
The lines went silent, and Grace got ready to wait.

* * *

Fun fact: Grace is allergic to peanut butter.


	21. The Final Battle

In one of the huts nearest to the main building several Infernape-morphs were talking softly about Grace's plan.  
"I don't know," one of them said, "It sounds dangerous."  
"It's either that or staying here and getting beaten every day," another replied.  
"Besides," a third added, "everyone else is going along with it. If they fail we all pay, so we might as well make sure they don't fail."  
A shadow slipped inside, causing them to jump. The morph who had just spoken jabbed his stun-gun at the figure, who barely missed getting hit.  
"Whoa, hold on there! Grace sent me," the figure exclaimed quietly.  
The Infernape-morphs squinted at the figure, Jeff, who was standing still with his hands held up in a peace gesture.  
"Well, you look like her," one of them finally said, "Do you have the goods?"  
"Yep," Jeff pulled out the stun-guns that were hidden on his person and handed them to the other morphs. "Grace also says to remember to sneak up on the guards because we probably won't be able to handle all of them at once."  
"Got it."  
Jeff nodded and slipped out, leaving the morphs to figure out how to get the stun-guns to the others.  
The moon finally set, leaving the world in a darkness eased only by the fitful twinkling light of stars as wisps of clouds passed in front of them. It was time to move. Grace briefly considered using the hole in the roof from where she had escaped last time, but decided against it. Tonight there wasn't any rain to cover her, and the guards probably had orders to watch her hut carefully in case she tried to escape again.  
Once the guard had passed Grace slipped outside and into the shadows between the huts. With a stealth born of practice she slipped between huts and across paths until she was at the base of the same watchtower she had climbed to escape. There was no one else climbing it, so she began scaling the wall. It was much easier than last time, since there was no rain to make the wall slick. Once she got to the top she carefully made her way to the other side and peeked over the edge. Two guards were standing at the corners, staring into the compound. She edged over to one side and pulled out the one stun-gun she had kept. Slowly and carefully, she pulled herself up until she could see the guard's bored expression. With a quick jab she hit him with the stun-gun. He went stiff for a moment before slumping over. She caught him before he hit the floor and draped him over the edge of the wall before pulling herself over. The other guard heard her and turned around.  
"What the..."  
Grace's fist collided soundly with his temple, rendering him unconscious. As he crumpled to the ground she pulled the other guard to the floor and looked around. All the watchtowers she could see were being silently taken over by morphs. Excellent. Now all they had to deal with were the guards on the ground.  
Ignoring the trapdoor that led to the stairs the guards used, Grace silently went over the wall and climbed down. The stairs probably led to a tunnel that ran straight into the main building, and that was one of the last places she wanted to go right now. As she ghosted between huts she heard a shout. There were more shouts and a klaxon began going off.  
"Crap," Grace muttered under her breath.  
"What's going on?" Marie asked over the mike.  
"Something went wrong and the alarm's going off. Get everyone over here as fast as possible."  
"On it."  
Grace started running towards where the shouts had come from. "Jeff, what's going on?"  
There was a long pause before Jeff answered. "I don't know. As soon as the alarm started going off they came in, hit me over the head, and dragged me down to the boiler room. I'm trying to find a way out, but it looks like everything's reinforced."  
"Just do what you can."  
Grace arrived at the scene. Morphs and grunts were mingled together in one tumultuous mass, trying to kill or at least disable each other. Most of the grunts looked like they had just rolled out of bed, but a few were more than adequately prepared. Almost all of them had guns, but refrained from using them in case they hit a comrade. The morphs were doing a good job of using their training against the very ones who had trained them. More grunts were trickling from the buildings, though, and the morphs were already outnumbered.  
"Marie, how close are you?"  
"We're about ready to dock. How's it going over there?"  
"Not good. We're outnumbered and there's more coming by the minute."  
There was a pause before Marie responded. "We've just docked. Help will be there any minute."  
"Great."  
With that Grace joined the fray, fighting her way towards a small group that was about to be overwhelmed. Shouts announced the arrival of the other morphs, who eagerly joined the fight. Grace soon found herself back to back with Clarence.  
"OK, Grace, you're the leader. What do we do?" he asked.  
"Right now, try to stay alive and get everyone together if possible. I'll come up with a plan once I get a better idea of what we're up against."  
"Gotcha."  
Together they began working their way towards another group. About halfway there Clarence suddenly grabbed Grace and pulled her to the ground. A large something flew over them. Grace sat up just in time to see a Snorlax-morph, curled up into a ball, crash into a group of grunts.  
"Strike!" Clarence yelled.  
As the Snorlax-morph unrolled Grace gave him a thumbs-up. He replied with one of his own before starting to lash out with big, meaty fists.  
"Grace, where are you?" Marie asked over the mike.  
"In the middle of it all. Where else would I be?"  
"If you can, look at the main building."  
Grace risked a glance in that direction. "Crap."  
"What is it?" Jeff asked.  
"There's a huge group gathering right outside the building you're in. If they all come in at once we're as good as finished."  
There was a long silence over the mike, then a sharp burst of static followed almost immediately by a huge explosion. Everyone covered their heads as shrapnel, the remains of the main building, began raining down.  
"Jeff?" Silence. "Jeff, are you still alive?"  
"Oh Jeff," Marie whispered.  
"Jeff was in there, wasn't he," Clarence said quietly.  
"Yeah," Grace replied.  
"I guess all we can do is make sure he didn't die in vain."  
Grace nodded, and they began fighting even harder. The morphs began clustering in larger groups, and Grace was able to call out directions to them. Slowly, the battle began turning in the morphs' favor. Then Grace saw a lone figure slip off towards the docks.  
"Try to keep everyone together," she told Clarence.  
"What will you be doing?"  
"I'm going to say hi to an old acquaintance," Grace replied before taking off, weaving in between grunts and morphs and never taking her eyes off her quarry.  
A Team Rocket member slipped behind one of the few buildings still standing and caught his breath before bolting towards the dock, whip swinging on his belt. If he could just make it to the dock he could take off in one of the motorboats and the morphs would never catch him. As reached the path that led down to the water a figure landed in front of him, forcing him to skid to a stop.  
"And where do you think you're going?" Grace asked, eyes narrowing as she glared daggers at the one who was responsible for taking the skin off her back multiple times.  
"Out of my way," the man growled, pulling out his whip and swinging it at her. Grace held up her arm, letting the whip wrap around her wrist before pulling it from the man's grasp.  
"That was the last time you'll ever swing this," Grace said as she started advancing.  
The man's cries for help were lost in the noise of battle as the fight wore on.

* * *

Fun fact: the scene with the Snorlax-morph (who's name is Nate, by the way) was requested by one of my brothers, who's official nickname is Snorlax.


	22. Clean-Up

The sky was beginning to pale when the last of the grunts surrendered. The morphs let out a cheer when they realized the battle was over. Grace allowed them a few minutes to celebrate before organizing clean-up crews to deal with the after-battle mess. Everyone was soon busy dealing with prisoners, cleaning up rubble, or helping with the wounded. Grace was helping to move a pile of debris to make it easier to go between the battlefield and their makeshift hospital when she heard someone calling her name. She turned around and was almost immediately embraced by Marie.  
"I'm so glad you're alive," Marie said.  
"Same here. Are you OK?"  
"Yeah. I just got a few scratches here and there. What about you? How's your back?"  
"It's not that bad."  
"Are you sure?"  
"I'm sure."  
Marie frowned slightly as she finally released Grace. "If you're so sure. Just make sure to have Julia look at it."  
"I will when I'm finished."  
Marie nodded and went to help Julia with the wounded. Grace quietly sighed with relief that Marie hadn't asked to see her back. Once the debris was cleared she, Lyra, and several other morphs started going through the remains of the main building, checking to see if anyone had survived the blast.  
"Shouldn't you be resting?" Lyra asked Grace as they shifted rubble, "Your back looks pretty torn up."  
"It looks worse than it really is," Grace replied.  
"If you say so," Lyra said, though she didn't sound convinced.  
After almost an hour of digging Grace uncovered a hand, one she was familiar with. She began digging frantically, heaving several large pieces of rubble out of the way like they were made of straw. Within a minute she uncovered Jeff, so cut up, burned and covered in grime as to be almost unrecognizable.  
"Jeff?" Grace said quietly as she gently lifted his head into her lap. Jeff's eyes flickered open.  
"Did we...win?" he asked in a hoarse voice.  
"Yes, we won. What happened to make the building blow up?"  
"I...did what you did...and made...the boiler explode."  
"You could have killed yourself," Grace gently chided.  
"Yeah. I didn't...think about that."  
"That's OK. We couldn't have won it if it wasn't for you."  
Jeff smiled slightly before his eyes closed and his head lolled to one side. After making sure he was still breathing Grace carefully picked him up.  
"Is that..." Lyra started.  
"Yeah, it's Jeff. And he's alive."  
Lyra's eyes widened. "Run fast."  
Grace nodded and took off, slowing only when she reached the field hospital. When Julia saw her running up she hurried over.  
"Who's that?"  
"Jeff," Grace panted as she gently laid him down on one of the few open blankets. Julia knelt beside him.  
"He's in pretty bad condition. We'll have to move him to the boat. That's where most of my equipment is."  
"Grace, you said your back wasn't that bad!"  
Grace winced before standing and turning to face Marie. The Gardevoir-morph looked absolutely furious, a look Grace had only seen once and had never wanted to see since.  
"You shouldn't even be out here. What the heck do you think you're doing?!"  
"I found Jeff," Grace said, trying to calm Marie down a little.  
"Is he alive?"  
"Barely."  
"Then Julia can take care of him. You are getting on the boat and you will stay there until I say so. No arguing."  
Marie grabbed Grace's arm and almost literally dragged her onto the ship and into a tiny room with a makeshift bed. After making Grace lie down on her stomach and promise not to move Marie left. Grace sighed and stared at the wall, wondering if Marie had gotten this room ready just for her. After almost three hours and a catnap Julia came in, arms laden with bandages and a five-gallon bucket.  
"Sorry it took me so long," she said as she set the bucket down, "There've been a lot of touch-and-go patients."  
"That's fine. How's Jeff? Is he going to make it?"  
"It was pretty close, but he should make a full recovery if he doesn't move for a while."  
Julia opened the bucket and the odor of rotting vegetables filled the room.  
"That isn't all for me, is it?"  
"Oh, no. It's just easier to carry around a bucket than it is to have to send people to get more, although you might take a good chunk of it. Right as your back was healed up, too."  
"Hopefully this time it will heal and stay healed."  
Julia began applying the gunk to Grace's back. "I hope so, or Marie will never let you hear the end of it."  
"Has she calmed down any?"  
"She's calmed down a little. If she had her way she'd be in here too, but there's so many wounded that we've both been going almost nonstop."  
Grace chuckled dryly. "I'd offer to help, but Marie would have my head if I did."  
"I think the best way you could help would be to get plenty of rest. Once everything's cleaned up everyone's expecting you to come out and tell them what to do with their lives."  
Grace sighed as she tried to help Julia with the bandages. "I don't suppose I could tell them to decide for themselves."  
"You could, but they'd still come to you for advice. You've become the de facto leader after all, and everyone's expecting you to lead them."  
"I don't suppose I could just retire from the position of de facto leader."  
"You could, but then you'd be appointed the official leader whether you like it or not."  
"That's probably going to happen anyway."  
Julia smiled. "Heavens, Grace, don't sound so excited."  
Grace made a face. "Just because it's going to happen doesn't mean that I have to like it. Besides, I'm not really leader material."  
"Because anyone else could have actually formulated a plan to free all the morphs and actually have it work. Oh, not to mention all the other times where you've come up with working plans to rescue morphs. And the fact that practically everyone looks up to you and would follow you off a cliff if you asked."  
"There's a difference between planning a rescue and trying to govern a group of people."  
Julia grinned slightly as she finished off the bandaging and replaced the lid on the bucket. "Not as big a difference as you'd think. Someone will come by to check up on you in a little while."  
She left, and Grace resigned herself to staring at the wall and thinking about how to handle the responsibility that was looming over her. After a few hours of restless thinking she was interrupted by Seth, who came in bearing a plate of food.  
"How are you doing?" he asked as he handed her the plate.  
"Bored out of my wits," Grace replied as she started eating. "How's everything going outside?"  
"Cleanup's going fast. A lot of the morphs who are still able are helping with the wounded. The prisoners are causing a bit of trouble, though."  
"How so?"  
"No one can decide what to do with them. Miles suggested calling the police, but some of the morphs want to just kill them and get it over with."  
Grace was quiet for a moment as she contemplated the situation. "I'd say let the police deal with them. There's been enough killing already, and it's easier to hand them off to the police than it is to deal with a pile of corpses."  
Seth nodded as he took her now-empty plate. "I'll let the others know what you think. Oh, and it might not be much, but here's something to help with your boredom." He pulled a bouncy ball out of his pocket and handed it to her.  
"Where'd you get this?"  
"I found it in one of the buildings. Nobody's been able to figure out why it was there. Probably some bored guard."  
"Thanks."  
Seth nodded and left. With a sigh Grace began bouncing the ball against the wall, quietly counting as she started thinking.

* * *

Fun fact: Grace's DNA is made up of the following:  
Lucario 30%  
human 30%  
Mew 15%  
Medicham 5%  
Infernape 4.5%  
Machoke 3.7%  
Lairon 2.8%  
Blaziken 2.4%  
Scyther 2.1%  
Garchomp 1.7%  
Tyranitar 1.5%  
Metagross 0.7%  
Absol 0.5%  
Tyrogue 0.1%  
In Grace's case the Mew DNA acts more like glue to keep the various fragments of DNA together rather than boosting power. Thanks to **Emolga237** for asking about it.


	23. The End of the Beginning

"One million nine hundred sixty, one million nine hundred and sixty one..."  
The bouncy ball bounced out of Grace's hand and rolled into the corner, out of her reach. She sighed as she stared at it. Grace had been confined to bed for over three days now, alone except for when someone brought in meals or snuck in with a problem. From what she'd gathered Marie was discouraging people from coming to her with anything short of a near-cataclysmic disaster, probably to keep Grace from getting up to deal with whatever was going on outside. Marie's intentions were good, but Grace was starting to go stir-crazy, both from inactivity and not knowing what was going on.  
There was a soft knock at the door, causing Grace to jump a little. It slowly opened, revealing a figure on crutches, so covered in bandages as to be almost unrecognizable.  
"Jeff, what on earth are you doing here?"  
"Ice decided to become my personal care-giver, so I thought I'd try to escape her for a bit."  
"Marie's going to kill you when she finds out."  
"Probably. If she finds out, that is." Jeff limped over and used one of his crutches to roll the bouncy ball towards Grace.  
"Just for that I won't tell Marie if she asks," Grace said as she picked up the ball.  
"Have you gone crazy yet?"  
"Almost. I'm about to call my ball Kevin next time she comes in. How are you holding up?"  
Jeff shrugged. "Not too bad. I still hurt all over a little, but it's getting better. I might actually be able to stand being in bed for so long if Ice would stop smothering me."  
Grace chuckled quietly. "There's worse things, I guess. Do you know what's going on outside?"  
"From what I've heard cleanup is finished and the prisoners have been handed over to the coast guard. Right now everyone's building better shelters and waiting for the wounded to get up and moving again."  
"That might be a while if Marie has her way."  
"No kidding. I've been wondering if she's ever..."  
"Jeff, what are you doing out of bed?!"  
Jeff flinched and turned to face Marie, who was standing in the doorway with a stormy look on her face. She didn't give him a chance to answer, instead grabbing his arm and dragging him out the door while he protested in vain. Grace had to grin before sighing and going back to bouncing her ball against the wall.  
"One million nine hundred and sixty two, one million nine hundred and sixty three..."  
Half an hour later Marie came in with some fresh bandages and a jar of wonder-gunk.  
"Did you kill Jeff?" Grace asked as she stopped bouncing her ball.  
"No, but he promised not to get up again if I kept Ice away from him. How are you feeling?"  
"Like I'm about to go crazy from boredom," Grace answered as she sat up. "When can I leave?"  
"Julia said if your back's looking good enough you can get up in a day or two."  
"Thank heavens. Where is Julia, by the way?"  
"She's busy with someone else, so I told her I'd come and do you."  
"How have you been holding up?" Grace asked as Marie started unwinding bandages.  
"It's been busy, but it's calmed down the last day or two."  
There was a minute or two of silence as Marie examined Grace's back and started applying the wonder-gunk.  
"Everyone's pretty much decided on living here and making you permanent leader," Marie finally said.  
"I've though of a way around that."  
"And what would that be?"  
"Democracy."  
"They'd still vote you in as leader."  
"Yes, but with the system I've come up with I wouldn't be leader for very long."  
"Let's hear it," Marie said as she started on the bandages.  
"I was thinking about a council of maybe ten morphs. They'd be elected by popular vote and would make all the decisions by voting."  
"What if they're evenly split?"  
"There'd be another position, I don't know, speaker maybe, that would moderate the council and serve as a tie-breaker if one was needed."  
"And how long would they serve?"  
"I was thinking about two years. They could be elected again, but not in a row. Then there wouldn't be any career politicians and they wouldn't forget what's happening outside wherever the meetings take place."  
"You've really thought this through, haven't you?"  
"After spending almost four days alone with only my bouncy ball as company, I've thought about a lot of things."  
Marie smiled slightly as she tied off the bandages. "Well, I think you can get up tomorrow, as long as you don't over-exert yourself." She stood up to leave. "Oh, by the way, they've been talking about making a statue of you."  
"Absolutely not," Grace said with quiet conviction.  
"Grace, no matter how much you deny it you're still a hero, and everyone wants to celebrate that."  
"They can do that, just not with a statue."  
"They're going to insist."  
"Well, if they're going to insist on a statue..." Grace was quiet a moment. "Make it a memorial for everyone who gave their life instead."  
"And that's why you're a hero. I'll tell them what you said."  
Marie left. Grace stared at the wall. So everyone wanted a way to celebrate the fact that she was a hero. She wasn't too happy about that, but she could ignore it if it wasn't anything too big like a statue. Heck, they could give her a holiday if they wanted, as long as she could disappear for that day. The thing was, though, that she didn't feel as much of a hero as everyone thought she was. What exactly had she done that was so great? She'd come up with a plan and she'd seen that plan through. That was it. Grace started bouncing her ball. She'd have to ask Marie about it.  
The next day Grace was up and outside before dawn, just in case Marie changed her mind. The rubble had been cleared away and most of the huts had been torn down, the wood used to make larger, more comfortable temporary dwellings.  
"You're up early," a voice behind her said. Grace turned to see Bart standing behind her, apron draped over his arm. "Should I keep Marie from knowing about this?"  
"No. She said I could get up today."  
Bart chuckled. "As long as you don't over-exert yourself, right?"  
"Something like that," Grace smiled. "Do you have any non-over-exerting work I can help with?"  
"There's always work to do in the kitchens. If you want you can come help with breakfast."  
Grace followed Bart into the ship. The galley was small, but Bart managed to pull off cooking three meals a day for over a hundred morphs in the confined space. Grace was soon busy helping prepare food and taking it to those still confined to bed. One of the last ones she took breakfast to was Jeff, who grinned when he saw her.  
"Is this a covert operation?" he jokingly asked.  
"Nope. Marie's not going to come and drag me away."  
Jeff sighed. "And I was so looking forward to seeing that."  
"Sorry, it's already happened once and I don't plan on it happening again."  
Jeff began fiddling with his silverware. "So do you have a plan for what happens next?"  
"Kind of." Grace told him about her idea for a government. When she was finished Jeff looked both impressed and amused.  
"It sounds like a good idea, although to me it seems like you're trying to get out of being a leader."  
"You catch on fast. Now eat up before it gets cold."  
"Yes, Marie," Jeff said meekly, albeit with a wink. Grace smiled as she rolled her eyes and left.  
By the time breakfast was over more volunteers had arrived in the kitchen, so Bart told Grace she could find something else to do if she wanted. Grace did so, going outside and helping weatherproof some buildings against the storm that several morphs were predicting. That afternoon Marie found her up on a roof, patching a hole.  
"Grace, what are you doing up there?" she called.  
"Fixing a hole," Grace called back before jumping down.  
Marie crossed her arms. "What did I say about over-exerting yourself?"  
"Patching a hole in a roof is not over-exerting myself."  
"What do you call jumping off said roof?"  
"The fastest way to get down."  
Marie rolled her eyes. "Just use a ladder next time. What else have you been doing today?"  
"Not a whole lot," Grace shrugged. "I helped Bart in the kitchen for a bit before coming out here and helping to get things ready for the storm that some of the others are saying is on the way."  
"Which would entail?"  
"Plugging holes, mostly. No running or heavy lifting."  
"Good. Keep it that way."  
Marie left, and Grace smiled to herself before climbing back onto the roof.  
Two days later the predicted storm arrived, bringing a pounding dulge that lasted all day and well into the night. Thanks to the efforts of everyone to get everything as water-proof as possible everyone was more or less dry, except for a few minor leaks. The next morning dawned bright and clear, and the morphs began thinking about getting themselves organized. Between Grace, Marie, and a few other morphs they arranged a meeting of sorts to be held the next day to discuss what they were going to do next. The next morning everyone was gathered where the main building used to be. Even Jeff was allowed to come, although both Marie and Julia insisted on keeping close watch on him. Once everyone was gathered Miles climbed onto a flattened pile of rubble and let out a loud whistle.  
"Alright," he said once everyone had quieted down, "we're all here today to figure out what's going to happen next. First off, we need to choose a leader. Who do you want?"  
There was a loud roar as everyone called out the name of the one they wanted. Miles held up his hands for quiet.  
"OK, let's do this by raise of hands. Who wants Grace as a leader?"  
A sea of hands went up. Miles only needed a good glance to determine the vote.  
"It looks like Grace is the leader. Grace, the rubble pile is yours."  
Miles stepped down. There was a cheer as Grace climbed up. She patiently waited until it was quiet.  
"I appreciate your confidence in me and my ability to lead. However, I've come up with another idea. Are you willing to listen to it?"  
Almost everyone nodded, so Grace outlined her plan and the reasons behind it. She then called for a vote. The majority was for it.  
"How are we going to vote?" someone called once everyone had put their hands down.  
"Good question. Do we have any paper?" Grace asked.  
"We have a bunch of paper, but not very many pens," someone else answered.  
"Then we'll just have to take turns. Who wants to help count the votes?"  
Several morphs raised their hands. Grace gestured for them to come to the front.  
"OK, here's what will happen. Everyone will get a piece of paper. Once you get a pen write down who you want as speaker and ten people you want on the council. Fold the paper in half, give the pen to someone else, and hand your vote to one of the morphs up here. We'll meet back here once the votes have been counted. Got it?"  
There was a chorus of agreement, and those who knew where the paper and pens were went and got them. The paper was distributed and the pens began circulating as the morphs wrote down who they wanted to lead them. Afterwards most of them left to continue working, but a few stayed, talking to each other and guessing who would be chosen. After almost an hour the votes were finally counted and recounted. Everyone was rounded up and Miles ascended the rubble pile to announce the results, first reading off the council members before getting to the the speaker.  
"Interestingly enough, the vote was almost unanimous for the position of speaker."  
"What do you mean by almost?" someone asked.  
"Well, there was one vote for Marie..."  
"Grace!" Marie exclaimed. Grace gave her a mischievous grin.  
"...But other than that the vote was unanimous in favor of Grace."  
There was a bit of cheering as Miles once again gestured for Grace to take the stand. When it became quiet Grace spoke.  
"Alright, if I could get the council members and maybe Miles and Julia over here we'll begin figuring things out."  
As everyone else dispersed those chosen to be on the council, as well as Miles and Julia, gathered around the rubble heap.  
"OK," Grace said, cracking her knuckles, "let's get to work."

* * *

Fun fact: Clarence has a teddy bear named Cuddles.


	24. Epilogue

Rain pattered softly as a lone figure stood in front of a statue in the middle of a large plaza. It was an impressive statue by any means, carved in the likeness of eleven different morphs, their names engraved on the base. The figure was staring at the name at the top of the list: Tori.  
"You're going to catch a cold if you stay out here much longer."  
Grace tore her eyes away from the name and turned to face Marie, standing a short distance away under a blue umbrella. "I've just been thinking."  
"About what?" Marie asked as she came to stand by Grace.  
"Things."  
They stood in silence for a while, staring at the statue.  
"I've been thinking about leaving," Grace finally said.  
"Why?" Marie asked, though she didn't sound surprised.  
"Everyone's becoming too dependant on me for decisions. I haven't been speaker for almost a year and they're still asking me what to do. They need to think for themselves."  
Marie nodded. "And what will you be doing?"  
"I'm not sure. Exploring, maybe, or sightseeing."  
"Or foiling Team Rocket plans?"  
"Probably."  
There was a long moment of silence as they both stared at the top name on the statue.  
"When do you leave?" Marie finally asked.  
"In a couple of days, when the boat comes in."  
"I take it you'd rather have no one else know until you've already gone?"  
"That would be preferable." Grace glanced at Marie. "You're taking this much more calmly than I expected."  
"I've been expecting you to leave for a while now. My only worry was that you'd slip off without telling anyone."  
"I wouldn't want to cause that much panic." Grace tucked a dripping strand of hair behind her ear as she looked at the buildings that surrounded them. "We've done a pretty good job in just three years."  
"We have. Now let's go inside before we both catch colds."  
With one last glance at the name Grace smiled and followed Marie, leaving the statue to its quiet contemplation amidst the quiet patter of rain.

* * *

And that's the end. Thanks for reading!

A couple of things before I sign off. I did write a morph Christmas story, so look for that around December. Also, I've been thinking about writing a sequel (or two), so if you want one, I have a poll up. Go vote for your favorite ideas. Thanks again for reading!


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